Panasonic Successfully Completes the Acquisition and De-listing of Zetes Industries SA

Osaka, Japan - Panasonic Corporation announced today that it has completed the acquisition of 100% of outstanding shares of Zetes Industries SA and the de-listing of Zetes shares from Euronext Brussels. Zetes is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and has a market leading position in goods and people identification and mobility solutions in Europe.

This acquisition is an important milestone for Panasonic’s logistics business, one of the key segments in the growing B2B Solutions business. The transaction allows Panasonic to further strengthen its logistics solutions capabilities that help its logistic clients to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations. In addition, Panasonic also intends to expand people identification solutions, which include the design, production and personalization of secure ID documents for the public sector. Panasonic believes that this transaction will contribute significantly to its global capabilities delivering sustainable growth and customer value.

Following the de-listing, Panasonic is able to closely cooperate with Zetes and to accelerate the business development of both companies. Specifically, Panasonic plans to integrate its advanced research and development capabilities with Zetes’s market leading goods identification solutions. Together with Zetes, Panasonic is also actively exploring further business expansion beyond Europe, including Japan.

Both, Panasonic and Zetes are committed to pursuing further growth in goods and people identification and mobility solutions to become the leading provider in these markets.

Zetes will continue to operate under the Zetes brand as part of the Panasonic Group and to be managed by the existing management team led by Mr. Alain Wirtz.

On April 28, 2017, Panasonic completed the acquisition of 57.01% of Zetes's issued shares in a private transaction and subsequently launched a mandatory takeover bid under Belgian law. On June 22, 2017, Panasonic held more than 95% of the issued shares as a result of the takeover bid and subsequently reopened the bid as a squeeze-out. As of today, Panasonic successfully completed the acquisition of 100% ownership of Zetes. Prior to this announcement, Zetes’s shares were delisted from Euronext Brussels on July 13, 2017.