MEDIA INFORMATION
Semi-conductor location Saxony enriched by the Japanese:
Dresden's DAS Environmental Expert GmbH and Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha, Ltd. become partners in "Silicon Saxony"
Dresden / Kawasaki, 1. November 2004. As one of the most important European locations for the semi-conductor industry, Saxony welcomes a Japanese industrial enterprise as an investor in this field for the first time: MITSUBISHI KAKOKI KAISHA, Ltd. from Kawasaki is to become the partner of the medium-sized firm DAS Environmental Expert GmbH in Dresden. The managements of the two firms made the announcement today in the Saxon regional capital. At the same time, the heads of the partner companies. Satoru Hatano of MKK and Dr. Horst Reichardt of DAS, signed the articles of partnership. From now on MKK will hold a share of around one third in DAS. As the new partner is taken on board, venture capital shares are being redeemed.
MKK's involvement as an industrial investor allows the DAS to expand its core business. The company develops, constructs and produces waste gas disposal equipnlent for the semiconductor industry's production sites; in the last few years it has become well-established on the world market from its base in Dresden. Around 1300 units have been installed in semiconductor production companies in Europe, Asia and North America since the start of the '90s Now DAS intend to substantially upgrade their market position.
DAS Environmental Expert GmbH was founded in 1991 in Dresden by former employees of the microchip producer ZMD and the firm "Elektromat". Today the company' has 80 employees worldwide, about 50 of whom are based in the Dresden office.
MKK, founded in 1935, is a corporation in the Mitsubishi Group. In Japan, the company is a leader in chemical machinery manufacturing, constructing plants and machines for fertilizers and dyes, for mining, gas and hydrogen production, steel production, sewage disposal, air pollution control and other environmental technology. It has more than 500 employees.
"In December 2000, we concluded a licence agreement with DAS for the Waste Gas Abatement System for semi-conductor manufacturers. Since then, we have been exclusively manufacturing and marketing 'Waste Gas Abatement Facility of ESCAPE' for microchip industries and other electronic fields in Japan" MKK's president Satoru Hatano said today at the signing of the contract. He added that the ESCAPE system developed in Dresden had "become one of the major strategic products in our company". By investing in DAS, he said, MKK wanted to enter "a new, global business alliance".
According to acting partner and joint founder of DAS, Horst Reichardt, with its highly specialized products, the company will now be able to "gain new shares of the market considerably faster and more assertively". Moreover, with the help of their Japanese partner, they will be able to offer other branches of industry specialised solutions for the disposal of waste gases, as well as the semi-conductor industry. Reichardt continued: "We are truly proud that we could gain the interest of a partner of this calibre for Dresden and for a lasting commitment."
In the morning Satoru Hatano and Horst Reichardt already presented the new partnership in more detail during a meeting with the Saxon minister for economic affairs, Martin Gillo. The minister, who has already visited Japan several times on behalf of Saxony with Saxon business delegations, and who has a professional background in the semi-conductor industry, appeared enthusiastic.
With the thoroughly successful Japanese investment in Saxon automobile component production in mind, Gillo expressed the expectation that further Japanese companies may now follow the good example set by MKK in microelectronics.
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