Corporate | 30 March 2006 14:15

ARQUES Industries AG takes over Hottinger Maschinenbau GmbH

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— ARQUES Industries AG takes over Hottinger Maschinenbau GmbH Mannheim-based plant manufacturer is global market leader in the production of core shooters Starnberg, March 30, 2006 – The Starnberg-based equity investment company, ARQUES Industries AG (ISIN DE0005156004) announces the take-over of all shares in Hottinger Maschinenbau GmbH. The company, based in Mannheim, specialises in the production of core shooters which are, for example, used in the automobile industry and in the production of heating machinery. In this niche, Hottinger has a world-wide market share of over 40%. Since 1937 Hottinger has produced plants for the production of workpieces. The highly specialised company is characterised by continuous new technical developments which has led to Hottinger having developed more than 50 patents world-wide. The Mannheim-based company operates as global player and its customers include, among others, Volkswagen, Norsk Hydro, Ford, MAN, DaimlerChrysler and Buderus. ARQUES has particular confidence in the fact that Hottinger, together with a large customer from the auto supplier industry, has recently developed an innovative procedure for the production of crankshaft blocks for aluminium engines. The engine block production can be clearly optimised by means of the application of the new core shooters which use special sand cores during the manufacturing of work pieces with hollow cavities. With this new procedure expensive, toxic materials are substituted with cheaper and more ecologically friendly materials. A new technology is also being used for the first time which enables profitable production of significantly lower volume. This gives Hottinger a further unique selling proposition in the automobile industry which tends more and more to lower volumes and more varied models. The core shooters used in engine block production, which are manufactured exclusively by Hottinger, must meet with the highest qualitative requirements – in the case of a standard deviation of only 0.001mm, the crankshaft blocks are no longer usable. The contractually agreed co-operation with the automobile supplier is to be continued up to the year 2008. Alone due to this major order, Hottinger can guarantee production levels of over 50% until 2008. The plant and machine manufacturer generated a turnover of almost €20 million and employs approximately 70 employees, of which almost 25% are qualified engineers. The company was acquired according to the ARQUES philosophy. Hottinger is free of bank and other long-term commitments. Included in the purchase price is an approximately 20,000m² property not essential to operations. ARQUES subsidiary manager, Dirk Specht, will manage Hottinger. The ARQUES task force, a specialised operational team, will be employed immediately on a project-oriented basis. ‘In Hottinger Maschinenbau GmbH we have acquired an especially innovative German machine manufacturer’, said Dr. Martin Vorderwülbecke, ARQUES executive board member for acquisitions. ‘We hope to be able to use the top technical position better commercially as well.’ Hottinger Maschinenbau GmbH is the forth ARQUES Industries AG acquisition in the first quarter of the current year. In February Heinrich Heiland GmbH was acquired. The Swiss custom chemicals specialist, Rohner AG, and the web offset printer J.P. Bachem belong to the ARQUES Group since March 2006. The annualised group turnover could thereby increase by over €100 million to over €700 million in 2006. The ARQUES Executive Board is confident to announce further transactions in March. About ARQUES ARQUES Industries AG, Starnberg, is a turnaround specialist who focuses on the acquisition and the active restructuring of companies in transitional situations, in order to develop these, with its own team and own resources, to competitive enterprises with a positive yield. ARQUES revitalises its subsidiaries’ potential for creating value for the benefit of all its stakeholders, taking on the relevant social responsibility. ARQUES has made a duty of identifying underestimated companies with reduced survivability but with high appreciation potential, at the same time mastering complex company structures and transitional situations. The shares of ARQUES Industries AG are traded in the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘AQU’ (ISIN: DE0005156004) and are listed in the SDAX since September 19, 2005. Contact: ARQUES Industries AG Investor Relations & Corporate Communication Anke Lüdemann, CEFA/CIIA Tel.: +49 (0) 8151/ 651 0 Email: luedemann@arques.de (c)DGAP 30.03.2006 ————————————————————————— language: English emitter: ARQUES Industries AG Münchner Str. 15a 82319 Starnberg Deutschland phone: +49 (0)8151 651-0 fax: +49 (0)8151 651- 500 email: info@arques.de WWW: www.arques.de ISIN: DE0005156004 WKN: 515600 indexes: SDAX stockmarkets: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, München, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————