Panasonic acquired 57.01% of Zetes

The shares were acquired by Panasonic pursuant to the agreements that it had entered into on 22 December 2016 with the shareholders of Zephir Corporation SA, a holding company that owned 23.70 percent of the outstanding shares of Zetes, and Cobepa SA, holding 24.67 percent of the outstanding shares in Zetes, and certain other individual shareholders, including the management of Zetes, representing a total of 50.95 percent of outstanding shares in Zetes. At the same time, Panasonic also acquired an additional 5.26 percent of the outstanding shares of Zetes through several off-market transactions. As a result, Panasonic currently holds indirectly, through its wholly owned subsidiary Panasonic Holding (Netherlands) B.V., 57.01 percent of the outstanding Zetes shares. Following the acquisition of its stake in Zetes, Panasonic will launch a mandatory takeover bid for the remaining 42.99 percent of the outstanding shares in Zetes that it does not yet own. While Zetes has now become a subsidiary of the Panasonic group, Panasonic has the intention to keep Zetes and its subsidiaries as a separate business division for the foreseeable future. Mr. Alain Wirtz and Mr. Jean-François Jacques will continue to act as managing directors of Zetes and Mr. Pierre Lambert will continue to act as chief financial officer of Zetes.