OREANDA-NEWS. July 20, 2012.   ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has acquired the shares of Toyo Advanced Technologies Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minami-ku, Hiroshima; Yasuto Tatsuta, President; hereinafter “Toyo Advanced Technologies”) owned by Mazda Motor Corporation (headquartered in Fuchu-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima; Takashi Yamanouchi, Representative Director and Chairman of the Board; President & CEO; hereinafter “Mazda”) based on the basic agreement made with Mazda in April 2012, as follows:

ITOCHU will utilize its overseas network to expand the sales of the Machine Tool Business, one of the business domains of Toyo Advanced Technologies. In the Automobile Components Business, another key business domain, it will provide products with even greater added value than before, and will further deepen the collaborative relationship between ITOCHU and Mazda as an important components supplier to Mazda.

In addition to these activities, ITOCHU will be fully involved in the management of Toyo Advanced Technologies, including the dispatch of full-time directors, with the aim of further increasing the corporate value of the company.