We hereby announce that Nissha Co., Ltd.’s consolidated subsidiary in the Medical Technologies Business Unit, US-headquartered Graphic Controls Group, has concluded a share purchase agreement with the shareholders of Irish medical device manufacturers Advant Medical Limited and Advant Medical Costa Rica Limitada (hereinafter, “Advant Medical Group”), thus making them subsidiaries. The acquisition is scheduled to be completed in mid-December 2019.

The Medical Technologies Business Unit is focused on products used for cardiology, a market that is expected to grow on a global basis, and which includes medical electrodes, catheters, guide wires, and so on. As well as growing the contract manufacturing services (which involves a chain of processes covering product design, development, and manufacture) for major medical device manufacturers, the Medical Technologies Business Unit manufactures and sells products under its own brand to medical institutions. For the contract manufacturing services in particular, there is a strengthening trend for major medical device manufacturers to outsource manufacturing processes in order to focus on research and development and marketing activities, so we expect to see further expansion in business opportunities.

The Advant Medical Group has a manufacturing base in Galway, Ireland, which is one of the leading medical device clusters in the world, and the Group has the top global share in the manufacture and sale of dispensers for cardiovascular catheters and guide wires. In addition, by utilizing the medical device cluster network, it is expanding the business domain to include contracted manufacturing of catheters for neurosurgical use, and so on.
With this acquisition the Medical Technologies Business Unit seeks to improve profitability through vertical integration with the Company’s existing products, in addition to which it aims to use the networks in medical device clusters to obtain sales channels to major medical device manufacturers, and to further expand the contracted manufacturing business.

The impact of this transaction on the Company’s consolidated results for the current fiscal year is expected to be negligible. Going forward, if revisions to business forecasts or the announcement of other matters become necessary, we will make prompt disclosure of the same.