SCHOTT seeks majority in Moritex to strengthen imaging, lighting portfolio

Oct. 7, 2008
October 7, 2008--Technology and glass company SCHOTT (Mainz, Germany) issued a tender offer bid to acquire a majority in Moritex Corporation (Tokyo, Japan). With some 450 employees and sales of approximately $136 million dollars (fiscal year 2007/08), Moritex is a manufacturer of lighting systems based on light-emitting diode (LED) and fiber-optic technology, as well as optical machine-vision systems for industrial image processing in Japan.

October 7, 2008--Technology and glass company SCHOTT (Mainz, Germany) issued a tender offer bid to acquire a majority in Moritex Corporation (Tokyo, Japan). With some 450 employees and sales of approximately $136 million dollars (fiscal year 2007/08), Moritex is a manufacturer of lighting systems based on light-emitting diode (LED) and fiber-optic technology, as well as optical machine-vision systems for industrial image processing in Japan.

SCHOTT manufactures fiber-optic lighting and image guides in its Fiber Optics business unit that employs a staff of approximately 730 at manufacturing sites in the U.S., Mexico, the Czech Republic and Germany, and its sales office in Tokyo. Its solutions based on fiber-optic and LED technologies focus on the automotive, lighting, medical, industrial and architectural markets.

Due to the increasingly competitive situation in the optical image and lighting systems market and the ongoing substitution of fiber-optic systems by LED-based solutions, SCHOTT and Moritex decided to strengthen their capabilities by establishing a powerful alliance. SCHOTT aims to acquire a majority in Moritex (more than 50%). Moritex has already consented in advance to both a majority shareholding and the business alliance. "Our objective is to increase our ability to compete internationally, leverage synergies and enable stable growth for both parties," said Jürgen Dahmer, member of the Board of Management at SCHOTT.

Moritex has technological expertise that is of interest for the markets that SCHOTT addresses, including medical technology and the aviation and automotive industry. SCHOTT, on the other hand, provides outstanding technology in hot forming, fiber drawing, and automated manufacturing processes. At the same time, the capital tie-up and business alliance enable both companies--SCHOTT with its strong presence in Europe and the U.S. and Moritex with its strong presence in Asia--to improve access to markets of strategic importance.

SCHOTT and Moritex both signed a letter of intent on a strategic cooperation back in June 2007 and have been working together successfully in the areas of sales, purchasing and research and development since then. The respective management teams at both SCHOTT and Moritex are convinced that cooperating even more closely and realizing common goals can best be achieved by establishing a stable majority shareholding. SCHOTT has been present in Japan for over 40 years with its subsidiary SCHOTT Nippon K.K. SCHOTT generates 10% of its sales in Japan.

For more information, visit www.schott.com.

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