OREANDA-NEWS. August 9, 2012. ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced that ITOCHU, Kureha Corporation (hereinafter “Kureha”), Kuraray Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Kuraray”) and the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (hereinafter “INCJ”) have concluded an agreement to jointly inject as much as 20 billion yen in capital into Kureha Battery Materials Japan Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “KBMJ”). KBMJ was established as a joint venture by ITOCHU and Kureha in April of last year to handle materials for lithium-ion batteries (hereinafter “LiB”). With the capital participation of Kuraray and INCJ, the four companies plan to further accelerate KBMJ’s growth.

1. Background to the capital participation agreement

KBMJ was established by ITOCHU and Kureha as a joint venture and started operations on October 1, 2011, with the aim of manufacturing and selling CARBOTRON®P, a hard carbon anode material for LiBs, and to sell binders for LiB binders. In December 2011, Kureha and Kuraray reached an agreement to jointly commercialize Biocarbotron, a hard carbon anode material derived from plant material used for LiBs. Through these arrangements, ITOCHU and Kureha positioned KBMJ to become a central company within the rapidly growing LiB materials network. As such, the companies had been aiming to create a unique position by harnessing each company’s strength.

This time around, KBMJ will reinforce its financial base and further accelerate its growth with the participation of Kuraray and INCJ -- a company that aims to provide growth capital into innovative companies – as KBMJ’s shareholders.

ITOCHU is proactively investing in LiB materials businesses as part of its move to strengthen its initiatives in the LiB field. In the area of anode materials, ITOCHU has also been working on accelerating the global expansion of CARBOTRON®P by maximizing its potential by utilizing its wide-ranging management resources, its global network and its integrating capability.

2. Details of the capital participation, use of capital

KBMJ plans to raise as much as 20 billion yen over the next two years by issuing ordinary shares to ITOCHU, Kureha, Kuraray and INCJ through a private placement, and in addition, will issue non-voting preferred shares to INCJ.

KBMJ plans to mainly use the procured funds for capital expenditures aimed at setting up a stable, large-scale global supply structure for CARBOTRON®P and Biocarbotron, hard carbon anode materials used for LiBs.