Intralink helps Tensar acquire balance 51 percent stake in Chinese JV

21st July, 2005 - World leaders in soil reinforcement and ground stabilisation, Tensar International, has praised Asia Pacific market access specialists Intralink for its key role in facilitating the smooth acquisition of its Chinese joint venture subsidiary.

UK-based Tensar, this week completed the acquisition of the remaining 51 per cent of its joint venture in Wuhan province that manufactures high quality uni-axial and bi-axial geogrids for the Chinese internal and export markets.

China's construction industry is worth an estimated £175bn a year with expenditures forecast to increase 11.2 percent annually through to 2008*. As such, it represents an important strategic focus for Tensar, whose products are used for ground reinforcement on roads, railways embankments and many other construction applications.

Intralink was tasked with managing the commercial due diligence and ensuring the smooth transition from joint venture to wholly-owned subsidiary, including securing approvals from national and regional government and conducting detailed negotiations with the JV partners and legal and accounting representatives.

This week, both the Chinese Ministry of Trade and Economic Co-operation and the Wuhan Economic Development Zone agreed the deal which will see the creation of a new group company - Tensar Geosynthetics (Wuhan) Limited.

Intralink project manager, Julian Kingsbury, will work alongside local Tensar management to build the new venture as a world-class distribution and support structure in China.

Tensar selected Intralink as their development partner because of its extensive experience of managing the commercial and cultural aspects of business transactions in China and a track record of delivering business value.

Tensar International Finance Director David Johnstone said: "This was a hugely complex and sensitive deal that required a unique mix of regional knowledge, excellent contacts and the ability to consistently drive the project to its satisfactory conclusion. Intralink played the key role as our representative in working with officials at both national and regional level, legal representatives, our former partners and our own people to make this happen.

Bringing Intralink representation onto the board of our new company is a mark of the respect we have for their abilities and a further strengthening of our relationship. We now have the foundations in place to build a successful business in what is an exciting and enormously promising market for our products."

Intralink CEO James Lawson said: "We are delighted that we were able to work with Tensar to conclude this strategically important acquisition. It was a complex deal and one that required us to coordinate a number of stakeholders with different and often conflicting agendas. This further underlines Intralink's ability to help companies make real and practical progress in the Chinese market."

About Tensar:

Tensar International offers a high performance range of innovative products to provide cost-effective, timesaving and lasting solutions to widely encountered civil engineering problems. Typically, Tensar's "geogrid" and "geotextile" products are used for ground reinforcement on roads, railways embankments and many other construction applications.

About Intralink:

Established in 1990, Intralink has a proven record of achieving accelerated market access and revenue traction for venture backed technology companies in electronics, IT, software and semiconductors; covering the automotive, drug discovery, consumer electronics, construction materials and telecoms sectors for its clients. With offices in the UK, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing, Intralink works for US and European companies seeking access to the strategically important Chinese and Japanese markets.

The Chinese construction market:

According to statistics from the State Statistics Bureau, the construction industry is worth US$300bn in 2004 - accounting for 7.0% of the national GDP, making it the 4th biggest industry over the last five years. By the end of 2003, there were 24.14 million people working in the construction industry, and there are 48,688 construction companies in China.

The construction industry's total output value was 2,308.39 billion yuan in 2003. Of that amount, 2,013.86 billion yuan was generated by building and civil engineering, which accounted for 87.24 percent of the total. The construction industry has maintained a strong level of development in China in recent years demonstrating a higher growth than that of its gross national product. The industry's output value increased 20.61 percent in 2002, 24.6 percent in 2003. With the steady development of the national economy, the construction industry will continue its momentum of growth in the coming years.