Toray Tonen Specialty Separator Wholly Subsidiary (9050V)

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RNS Number : 9050V

Toray Industries Inc

20 January 2012

January 20, 2012

Toray Industries, Inc.

Notice Regarding Decision to Make Toray Tonen Specialty Separator

Wholly Owned Subsidiary

Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, President: Akihiro Nikkaku, herein referred to as gTorayh) announced that it today made a decision to make Toray Tonen Specialty Separator Godo Kaisha (headquarters: Nasushiobara, Tochigi prefecture), a 50-50 joint venture with Tonen Chemical Corporation and Tonen Chemical Nasu Corporation (both are subsidiaries of Tonen General Sekiyu K.K. [headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: P. P. Ducom] of ExxonMobil Group), Torayfs 100% owned subsidiary through redemption of the interest held by ExxonMobil Group.

1. Reasons behind the change in the stakes

Battery separator film (BSF) produced and sold by Toray Tonen Specialty Separator is a key part of lithium ion batteries (LIBs). LIBs are used in various mobile communication tools including mobile phone handsets and notebook PCs and are expected to continue growing in the future as the use of these electronic devices becomes even more wide-spread around the world and the devices themselves become more sophisticated. Moreover, LIBs have been adopted for electric and hybrid vehicles in recent years and this application is also expected to grow further.

At the same time, the competition in the BSF market has been intensifying against the background of remarkable market expansion in LIBs and BSF, and Japanese and foreign competitors are actively pursuing capacity expansion and technological development. This intense competition is expected to be continued in the future.

In January 2010, Toray established the 50-50 joint venture Toray Tonen Specialty Separator by making investment in Tonen Specialty Separator Godo Kaisha, which had an excellent track record in the BSF business, and has been jointly operating the business with the ExxonMobil Group. It is, however, necessary for Toray Tonen Specialty Separator to speed up its response even further upon operating the business to survive the competition in the drastically changing market environment. Towards that end, the companies, after discussion, reached the conclusion that it would be in the best interest of both companies for Toray to manage Toray Tonen Specialty Separator as a wholly owned subsidiary to further improve the companyfs corporate value.

Going forward, Toray will further utilize its film production and development technology and related global operation network to contribute to the BSF businessfs active profit expansion and enhancement of competitiveness by leveraging the production techniques, human resources and business expertise jointly accumulated by Toray Tonen Specialty Separator.

2. Details of the changes in the stakes

Toray Tonen Specialty Separator will refund the entire amount of the interest held by Tonen Chemical and Tonen Nasu Chemical, resulting in Torayfs 100% ownership of the company. The amount of the redemption is 53.6 billion yen.

The actual redemption is scheduled for the end of January and the company will have a new name, Toray Battery Separator Film Godo Kaisha (Chairman and President: Takeo Togano).

<Reference> Overview of the involved companies:

 
 (1)    Company              Tonen General Sekiyu         Tonen Chemical               Toray Tonen Specialty 
                              K.K.                         Corporation                  Separator Godo 
                                                                                        Kaisha 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (2)    Business             Refinement and               Production, processing       Production, processing 
                              sale of petroleum            and sale of petrochemical    and sale of synthetic 
                              products and production      products                     resin films 
                              and sale of petrochemical 
                              products 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (3)    Established          July 26, 1947                December 24, 1960            January 29, 2010 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (4)    Headquarters         1-8-15, Konan,               1-8-15, Konan,               1190-13, Iguchi, 
         address              Minato-ku, Tokyo             Minato-ku, Tokyo             Nasushiobara-shi, 
                                                                                        Tochigi Prefecture 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (5)    Representative       P. P. Ducom                  P. P. Ducom                  Takeo Togano (Chairman), 
                              (Representative              (President)                  Reinhart Papen 
                              Director and President)                                   (President) 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (6)    Capital              35,123 million               1,000 million yen            301 million yen 
         stock                yen 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (7)    Major shareholders   ExxonMobil Yugen             Tonen Technology             Toray Industries, 
         (members)            Kaisha: 50.02%               G.K.:75%,                    Inc. 50% 
         and their            and others                   Tonen General Sekiyu         Tonen Chemical 
         stakes                                            K.K.: 25%                    Corporation: 25%, 
                                                                                        Tonen Chemical 
                                                                                        Nasu Corporation: 
                                                                                        25% 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (8)    Net sales            2,398,718 million            177,579 million              - 
                              yen (consolidated)           yen 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (9)    Net assets           248,295 million              3,823 million yen            78,850 million 
                              yen (consolidated)                                        yen 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 (10)   Total assets         906,846 million              75,814 million               82,624 million 
                              yen (consolidated))          yen                          yen 
-----  -------------------  ---------------------------  ---------------------------  ------------------------- 
 

* The figures under (8) to (10) are as of December 31, 2010.

3. Schedule

 
 (1)   Resolution by the Board   January 20, 2012 
        of Directors 
----  ------------------------  ----------------------------- 
 (2)   Refunding of the stake    January 31, 2012 (scheduled) 
----  ------------------------  ----------------------------- 
 

4. Future outlook

Toray expects the impact of the move announced this time on its consolidated business performance for the year ending March 31, 2012 to be insignificant, but it is expected to contribute to improvement in the consolidated business performance from the medium- to long-term perspective.

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This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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