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Thales and Diehl consolidate fuze business

13 June 2006

Combining their expertise in ammunition elec-tronics and precision mechanics to establish one of the world's leading fuze suppliers.

The company will specialize in the development, production and marketing of ammu-nition fuzes and safety devices. Following approval by the anti-trust authorities, the corporate division Diehl VA Systeme and Thales subsidiary TDA will hold 51% and 49% of the company shares respectively. The joint venture forms the basis for a common longterm strategy in the Diehl/Thales fuze business.

Junghans Microtec GmbH will concentrate its resources at La Ferté Saint Aubin, France, and at its new headquarters in Duningen-Seedorf, Germany, where Diehl is currently investing in the expansion and modernization of its facilities. With initially 350 employees, the new company intends to achieve annual sales of €70 M.

Nearly three weeks after introducing the joint aerospace subsidiary, the new agree-ment stands for consistent enhancement of the proven and successful partnership between Thales and Diehl.

"Our customers in Europe and in the international market place in particular, will benefit from the concentration of complementary capabilities and resources in the area of modern fuze systems for conventional and intelligent ammunitions", says Pe-ter Grosch, CEO of corporate division Diehl VA Systeme.

Bruno Rambaud, Thales Senior Vice President, Land & Joint Systems, stated: "Set-ting up this joint venture is a strategic move to increase our market access in a do-main where intelligent weapon systems and munitions will play a key role in the fu-ture."

The new company has enjoys a broad technology portfolio reaching from micro me-chanics to highly integrated electronics. Numerous new developments, namely in the area of course correction fuzes, pave the way for an expected growth of 15 to 20% until 2010.

About Thales

Thales is an internationally leading electronics and system house supplying the global defence, security and aviation markets and supported by an extensive ser-vices portfolio. The company´s commercial and military businesses serve a single objective: maintaining security of people, property and nations. On the basis of a global network of more than 20.000 highly qualified researchers, Thales offers an unmatched capability in Europe to develop and deploy critical information systems. Thales has 60000 employees in 50 countries achieving sales of 10.3 billion EUR in 2005 with a record order book of more than 20 billion EUR.

About Diehl

The Diehl Stiftung & Co. KG belongs to the large German, internationally oriented industrial corporations. 10.200 employees in more than forty independent busi-nesses, organized in the three corporate divisions Metall, Controls and VA Systeme, achieve sales of 1.8 billion EUR. Since its foundation one hundred years ago, the company has been entirely family-owned.