Gonvarri incorporates Mitsui Group as a partner of its subsidiary GRI

The Japanese company acquires 25% of GRI, a subsidiary company specialized in the manufacture of towers and flanges for the wind sector, amounting to 100 million euros.

Madrid, March 6, 2015. Gonvarri Steel Industries has reached an agreement with Mitsui group, the Japanese corporation with over 48,000 employees operating in 67 countries, to incorporate this company as a partner specialized in towers and wind flanges manufacturing. Thus, the Japanese company acquires 25% of GRI, a Gonvarri subsidiary that has 10 factories in 6 countries, amounting to 100 million euros.

The entry of Mitsui as an industrial partner will allow the company to enter new markets. It will facilitate contact with large client of Mitsui, who is expected to generate synergies thanks to its wide presence throughout the offshore/onshore wind generation supply chain and in other sectors where GRI is not yet present.

After signing the agreement, which took place yesterday, the closing of the transaction is pending approval from competition authorities. It is estimated that it will happen by the end of June.

According to Javier Imaz, CEO of GRI: “The incorporation of Mitsui to GRI’s industrial project will allow us to accelerate and consolidate our internationalization process and to enter new energy-related sectors”.

About GRI

GRI Renewable Industries (www.gri.com.es) was born in 2008 and it is the wind industrial division of Gonvarri Steel Industries. The company has currently 10 wind towers and flanges manufacturing plants in Spain, Brazil, China, Turkey, India and South Africa; and it supplies towers and high quality flanges in order to manufacture wind turbines worlwide. This has allowed the company to finish 2014 with sales of 450 million euros and about 3,000 employees.

About Gonvarri Steel Industries

Gonvarri Steel Industries (www.gonvarri.com), is a leading European industrial group in steel service centers and renewable energy components. In 2014, it has shown again all its dynamism by buying two companies: Çepas, in Turkey, and CENO, in Colombia, and by opening two manufacturing plants in Brazil, one in 2014 South Africa and other one in China. Its EBIDTA grew by 16% to 177 million Euros in 2014.