News & Profile | NewsRelease | Subaru Corporation

�@ Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), a global manufacturer of transportation and aerospace-related products and the maker of Subaru automobiles, today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Isuzu Motors Ltd., to acquire all of the Isuzu's stock holdings in Subaru-Isuzu Automotive Inc. (SIA), a joint venture manufacturing company based in Indiana U.S.A. SIA is scheduled to become FHI's wholly owned subsidiary as of January 1, 2003.
�@
�@ The Memorandum of Understanding consists of the following three components:
�@	�P�j	FHI will acquire Isuzu's holdings in SIA, which stand at 49% of the company's total shares, and it will terminate its collaborative relationship with Isuzu at SIA.
�@	�Q�j	FHI will be assigned to the production of certain Isuzu vehicles at SIA.
�@	�R�j	Isuzu will be responsible for reimbursing the losses on SIA that will follow the termination of the collaborative relationship between FHI and Isuzu.
�@
�@ Details of the transaction will be finalized in future negotiations, and both companies plan to sign an agreement by mid December.
�@
�@ FHI and Isuzu had entered into an agreement to jointly operate a plant in the U.S. in 1986, and SIA was established in 1987. Since production began at SIA in 1989, both companies have cooperated to successfully run the plant for more than a decade. SIA's cumulative production volume reached the 2 million mark in April, 2002. The Memorandum of Understanding today, however, represents new strategic decisions by FHI and Isuzu, which result from the organizational analyses of both companies' respective mid-term management plans: "Fuji Dynamic Revolution -1" and Isuzu's "New Three-Year Business Plan."