October 4, 2012
Release
Company：HOKUETSU KISHU PAPER CO.,LTD.
Representative：Sekio Kishimoto，President and CEO
（Code：3865，First Section，Tokyo Stock Exchange）
Contact：Makoto Yanagisawa
General Manager，Public Relations
（Telephone：+81-3-3245-4500）
Hokuetsu Kishu Paper acquires Bernard Dumas to advance its glass micro-fibre
sheet business in a global scale
Hokuetsu Kishu Paper has announced today that it has acquired 100 percent of the shares in
France based Financiere Bernad Dumas SAS(“Bernard Dumas”) in order to advance its glass
micro-fibre sheet business in a global scale.
Hokuetsu Kishu Paper currently produces glass micro-fibre based high-efficiency air filter
media at its Nagaoka-mill located in Niigata prefecture and exports roughly half of its
production volume to market outside of Japan, mainly in Asian market.
Bernard Dumas (founded in 1924, located in Creysse France), also produces glass micro-fibre
based high-efficiency air filter media, but the majority of its production is glass micro-fibre
based battery separators for Valve Regulated Lead-Acid batteries (VRLA) for automobile,
telecommunication, IT and other industrial usage.
We both believe that there will be a tremendous synergy potential by sharing each other’s
technological excellence in glass micro-fibre sheet production.
Furthermore, by combining Hokuetsu Kishu Paper’s strong presence in Asian market for
glass micro-fibre based high-efficiency air filter media and Bernard Dumas’s strong presence
in European market for glass micro-fibre based battery separators for VRLA, we will be able
to position ourselves to capture growing worldwide demand and become one of the top glass
micro-fibre sheet suppliers in the world.
About Hokuetsu Kishu Paper
Hokuetsu Kishu Paper is one of the major papermakers based in Japan. The company
currently focuses on four business segments, Printing Paper, White paperboard, Specialty
paper and Paper processing.
Under its current mid-term management plan, Hokuetsu Kishu Paper aims to position itself
to become a truly global company by 2020. Acquisition of Bernard Dumas is in line with such
mid-term management plan for Specialty paper division.