Japanese joint venture secures Materialise presence in Asia

Japan, August 1st, 2003 - Materialise and Yokogawa Techno-Information Service (YTI) create the Joint Venture Materialise-Yokogawa Inc. of which Materialise has become the major shareholder. Materialise Yokogawa will represent the Materialise products in the dental and head-related clinical market in Japan. The new company will provide technical support to the existing distributors as well as making direct sales.
Regarding the establishment of this joint venture, Materialise' Yokogawa CEO Mr. Hiroaki Ozaki said: 'For years we have been distributing the Materialise' dental implant planning software SimPlant. The experience of this successful collaboration gives us confidence to proceed with the Materialise products as part of the Materialise group. We see a very strong business potential in Japan and aim at supporting our customers optimally, at this moment and in the long term. We have already gained a strong reputation within the Japanese market and we expect that our business in that region will continue to expand substantially in the years to come.'.
Materialise CEO Wilfried Vancraen:' With this partnership, we are clearly indicating our long-term commitment. The forecasts look very bright for this co-operation. Thanks to the joint venture with YTI, Materialise will be able to provide its technology directly to Japanese clinicians and patients.
In addition their direct feedback will allow to adapt our medical products SimPlant and SurgiGuides better to the specific needs of the Japanese patients.
We are very happy that in the collaboration with YTI we can take a major step to our mission : to support product development resulting in a better and healthier world, using Materialise software and hardware infrastructure and in depth knowledge of Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing.'

Materialise also has a branch office in Japan - Materialise Yokohama - which will remain responsible for distribution and support of the industrial Materialise products.
Last years' strategic capital increase with another Japanese partner in the field of rapid prototyping and tooling: ARRK Corporation, has also strengthen Materialise presence on the Japanese industrial market .About Materialise:

Materialise, with headquarters in Belgium, started in 1990 in the sector of rapid prototyping. Since that time, the company has experienced an exponential growth. Materialise has become one of the leading companies in the Rapid Prototyping and tooling market. The Materialise software is used worldwide by the largest companies hospitals and research institutes of the medical, automotive, aerospace and consumer electronics world. The medical software products Mimics and SimPlant convert CT scans to 3D and enable building of medical models, pre-surgery planning, computer guided implant surgery, .
Materialise has offices all over the world and the largest software development team in the sector.


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