Toshiba Corporation Announces Joint Venture with General Electric For Large Drive Systems Business

Houston, TX – March 7, 2000 Toshiba Corporation announced today the formation of a new automation and large coordinated drive systems joint venture with General Electric to better serve the needs of its worldwide customers. The new company will be named Toshiba GE Automation Systems International, employ six hundred people and have annual sales of $450 million.

Toshiba will take a 51% stake in the global joint venture, while GE will hold a 49% stake.

Focusing on providing large coordinated drive systems to the metals, paper, and materials handling industries, the new company plans to utilize the strengths of both Toshiba and GE’s industrial divisions. Customers will benefit from the world’s most reliable and technologically advanced drive systems supported by a global sales and service distribution network. The joint venture will also provide a market tested mix of North American and Japanese engineering and application experience coupled with an integrated control platform migration.

This new joint venture creates one of the largest global combinations of application and process-engineering talent found in the marketplace today.

Charles P. LeMone, Sr. Vice-President and General Manager of Toshiba International Corp, stated that "this JV is one of the first steps in Toshiba’s recently announced high growth strategic reorganization plan. GE’s customer focus and traditionally strong market standing will augment Toshiba’s reputation for high performance quality products. It is a strategic fit, and allows Toshiba to move ahead aggressively in repositioning our 125 year old company to continue meeting and exceeding the needs of our industrial customers."

According to Dick Pease, Vice President, GE Industrial Systems, this strategic partnership "will serve to strengthen GE and Toshiba in meeting the continuing competitive challenges of a global marketplace. The ability to integrate and leverage the products and process automation solution capabilities of both companies will provide a stronger basis to meet the requirements of our global customers, while positioning us for improved worldwide competitiveness."

Toshiba GE Automation Systems International will be operational October 1, 2000, subject to various governmental reviews in Japan and the United States. The new company will have offices in Tokyo, Japan and Salem, Virginia. The Tokyo subsidiary will cover the Japanese, Asian, and Oceanic markets. The United States subsidiary will merge GE Salem and Toshiba’s large coordinated drive systems business in Houston, Texas, and serve the Americas from Salem.

Toshiba International Corp/Houston anticipates additional manufacturing volume as a result of supplying products to the joint venture. Some individuals from Houston will transfer to the new joint venture, and work out of Tokyo, Japan or Salem, Virginia.

Toshiba and GE already have an established relationship in the power generation business, including turbines for generators and nuclear energy technology. The new joint venture will further strengthen ties between the two companies.

Both Toshiba and GE are committed to being the global leader in coordinated drives and automation systems, setting new standards in system performance and providing more alternatives and cost-effective solutions for our customers in a wide variety of industrial markets.

For more information please contact Christian Crews, Toshiba International Corp, at christian.crews@tic.toshiba.com or visit the web site at www.tic.toshiba.com/html/ticge.htm

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