COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Feb. 2, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- GN ReSound has purchased its Japanese distributor, Dana Japan, for US$3.1 million and the assumption of US$5.1 million in interest-bearing debt. Over the past 18 months, GN ReSound has been integrating five of the industry's major hearing instrument manufacturers into a single business unit in the GN Great Nordic Group. The acquisition of Dana Japan is part of GN ReSound's strategy aimed at controlling the sales and marketing of its products on all principal markets. GN ReSound is the market leader among global hearing instrument manufacturers in Japan.
With its 73 employees and sales in 2000 totaling about US$17 million, Dana Japan will be merging with GN ReSound subsidiary Beltone Japan KK, which has 30 employees and approximately US$9 million in sales, and the new company's name will be GN Dana Japan KK. The merger will create a strong platform on the Japanese market.
Dana Japan was founded in 1972 by S. Kimura, who, with his thorough knowledge of the market and close network of local contacts, will be heading up the new company. For more than 30 years, Dana Japan has been a solid, stable distributor of Danavox hearing aids and diagnostic instruments from GN Otometrics, another member of the GN ReSound family.
GN ReSound is the leader on the Japanese hearing aid market, which comprises approximately 8% of the global market and Japan is thus one of the world's three or four largest markets for hearing instruments. Demand for digital technology is expected to show dramatic growth over the next few years. The fact that sales of the more advanced digital rather than analog devices are on the rise serves to emphasize the need for intensified sales efforts. GN ReSound sales in Japan will in future be handled by the new subsidiary GN Dana Japan KK, which will distribute GN ReSound, Danavox and Philips hearing instruments and diagnostic test equipment from GN Otometrics, and by the company New Japan Hearing, which has the exclusive right to distribute Beltone products.
In 2000, GN ReSound acquired three distributors: AB Transistor in Sweden, Ternen in Australia and Bass & High in Spain.
The acquisition of Dana Japan is expected to have only a marginal impact on GN ReSound's 2001 results.