Sumitomo to acquire all shares of a German motor core supplier

Sumitomo Corporation (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Kuniharu Nakamura) and Sumitomo Corporation Europe (Head Office: London, United Kingdom; General Manager and CEO: Masaru Nakamura; collectively hereafter, "Sumitomo") have agreed with private equity firm Bavaria Industriekapital AG (Head Office: Munich, Germany; CEO: Reimar Scholz) to acquire, from its holding company, 100 percent share capital of Kienle + Spiess GmbH (Head Office: Sachsenheim, Germany; CEO: Wolfgang Werheid; hereafter, "K+S"), a company manufacturing and selling motor core components. The acquisition is planned for completion in March 2013.

K+S is one of the largest manufacturers of motor cores1 in Europe. Key strengths of the company include its integrated manufacturing process from core design, steel sheet slitting2, tool making, stamping and lamination, to die casting. K+S is also well known for its advanced technology, such as its patented Glulock technology, in which individual laminations are fixed together by gluing in the progression tool, as well as state-of-the-art copper die-casting technology.3 Due to greater environmental awareness in recent years, demand for motors with higher efficiency, including industrial motors, motors for electric and hybrid vehicles, are increasing and this will support the solid growth of K+S business.

With the collaboration of Sumitomo's extensive service center network, tool steel processing, distribution network, and K+S's technological excellence and strong customer base in the European market, the two parties will support K+S customers to expand their activities beyond Europe. The next target will be expansion of the motor core production to non-European markets.

< Main target markets of K+S products >

K+S products have a leading market share in their target markets in Europe, such as the wind power, transport, forklift, industrial, and pump markets.