BEKAERT ACQUIRES HIGH-TECH COATING COMPANY
N.V. Bekaert S.A., parent company of the Bekaert Group with its head office in Belgium, has acquired 100% of the shares in
"Flandersī Coating Group N.V."
with its registered office in Gentbrugge (Belgium)
As a result of this acquisition, N.V. Bekaert S.A. becomes 100 % shareholder in:
- "Emiel Vanderstraeten BVBA"
- "Medicoat BVBA"
- "Vanderstraeten R&D BVBA"
This acquisition is perfectly in line with Bekaertīs strategy to increasingly concentrate on niche products with a high added value that are based on Bekaertīs core skills, namely: metal transformation and a wide range of coating technologies.
"Flandersī Coating Group N.V." around Vanderstraeten is specialised in the "Research, development and application of various coatings and coating technologies to the customerīs specifications" and as such perfectly complements Bekaertīs present in-house coating technologies.
The principal activities of Flandersī Coating Group N.V. are:
- Industrial coatings with, among others, wear-resisting and corrosion-resisting properties
- Medical coatings used in orthopaedic implants
- The production of "sputtering targets" used in the sputtering of complex coatings on various substrates such as glass, metal and synthetic films.
- The production of machines and components used in high-tech coating technologies.
In 1998 "Flanders Coating Group N.V." recorded a turnover of approximately EUR 13 million and today employs 79 people.
Mr Guy Haemers, General Manager "Bekaert Advanced Materials" (BAM), made the following comments regarding this acquisition: "The activities of Vanderstraeten represent a major expansion of our technological basis and offer numerous synergies with Bekaert. They will therefore make a major contribution to realising our objective of at least doubling the BAM turnover over the next three years."
-- October 22, 1999 --