Element Six Completes its Acquisition of Barat Carbide Group

Element Six Completes its Acquisition of Barat Carbide Group

October 04, 2007

    SHANNON, Ireland, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Element Six
announces the completion of its acquisition of Barat
Carbide Holding GmbH from the German private equity
investor, Equita. The acquisition is one of the largest and
most significant in the group's history and raises the
group's total turnover to US$0.5bn and the number of
employees to 4,000.

    "Acquiring Barat Carbide is an important step for
Element Six in its ambitious programme of growth over the
next few years with the aim of generating US$1bn in revenue
within the next few years. In particular, it will support
the company's goal of bringing novel material engineering
solutions to a broad range of new markets and
applications," says Christian Hultner, CEO of Element
Six.

    Karl-Georg Hildebrand, Managing Director of Barat
Carbide adds, "The strengths of both organisations in
their different markets make us a powerful force in the
materials technology sector. This is a very exciting period
in the materials business as rapid developments in
technology are creating new market opportunities."

    New business opportunities

    "Adding Barat Carbide to the Element Six group of
companies is a key part of our growth strategy as well as
underlining our position as the leader in the development
of hard frontier materials," notes Christian Hultner.
"We not only broaden and strengthen our activities in
materials technology but we will also be able to benefit
immensely from combining our joint expertise to offer
innovative materials solutions that currently lie outside
the scope of existing technology."

    The acquisition brings together companies with leading
positions in complementary fields. Barat Carbide is a
leader in the development and manufacturing of tungsten
carbide wear solutions for soft rock tools in mining,
construction and road planing as well as wear parts for oil
& gas, chemical and other industries.

    Element Six is the major player in the development of
synthetic diamond and cubic boron nitride for various
industrial applications. Its products are mainly used in
the manufacture of tools for applications including
drilling, sawing, cutting, grinding and polishing of many
different materials ranging from ferrous and non-ferrous
metals, natural stone and concrete, wood based materials,
plastics, glass and ceramics. Another arm of its business
deals with synthetic diamond products for use advanced
engineering solutions in medical, optical, radio frequency,
thermal management and precision applications.

    Materials science research is in an extremely active
and exciting phase with the development of a variety of new
processing technologies driving a convergence between
superabrasives and tungsten carbide -- materials that have
been perceived as having distinct markets and application
areas. "The combined knowledge base of Element Six and
Barat Carbide in these areas will lead product innovation to
deliver new levels of performance to our customers,"
says Christian Hultner.

    The Element Six group of companies operates
internationally with processing and manufacturing
facilities in Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa,
China, Ukraine and the United Kingdom plus has an extensive
global distribution network.