R. STAHL AG invests in long-standing South-African sales partner ESACO Pty. Ltd.

R. STAHL strengthens its global presence with an investment in South Africa. The objective of the investment is the development of the African market, with a focus on the sub-Saharan region. This way, R. STAHL will be able to directly supply those customers that are already active on the African market. In order to realize this new regional approach R. STAHL acquired a 35% interest in the long-standing partner the South-African company ESACO Pty. Ltd. ESACO Pty. Ltd. is an owner-managed company, headquartered in Linbro Park near Sandton/ Johannesburg. The company was founded in 1975 and became a distributor of R. STAHL products right away. Due to the cooperation with R. STAHL, the product portfolio of ESACO has been expanded by establishing an extended workbench for explosion protected electrical equipment. This has allowed ESACO Pty. Ltd. to quickly respond to customers' specifications and to better cater to South African market requirements. 

ESACO Pty. Ltd. has many years of experience in the marketing of explosion-protected equipment. It is also an ISO 9001 listed company. "For many years, the employees of ESACO Pty. Ltd. have been familiar with the technical products and solutions of R. STAHL and they know the requirements of the local market very well. This expertise allows for an easy access of R. STAHL to the markets in sub-Saharan Africa. We assume that we will win a lot of major projects in this region in the coming years and we already position ourselves strategically for future growth", says Bernd Marx, CFO of R. STAHL AG. Through the investment, the market development in the region south of the Sahara, e.g. in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia or Nigeria, will be particularly intensified. R. STAHL estimates that the sales increase that can be achieved in this market in the medium term will be EUR 15-20 million.

2016-10-21 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de