Friendly acquisition of leading English vendor of PIMS software for oil refineries and chemical and petrochemical plants reinforces Yokogawa's commitment to optimum solutions.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation today announces it has agreed to purchase Marex Technology Limited, a British company specializing in plant information management systems (PIMS) software for oil refineries and chemical and petrochemical plants. This acquisition will provide Yokogawa with the latest in PIMS software with such key necessities as advanced control, training simulators, scheduling and safe instrumentation. The acquisition will also help bring Yokogawa's global service system into line with "Enterprise Technology Solutions," the company's new concept that offers customers an even wider choice in optimum solutions.

Danny Fisher, Managing Director of Marex Technology Limited, heads a staff of 60 at the systems engineering company that was incorporated in 1966 on the Isle of Wight. The company, with its wealth of expertise in applications for oil refineries and chemical and petrochemical plants, has been marking excellent growth in sales mainly in European industrial marketplaces, recently expanding its business activities to the Middle East and Asia. PROMACE, Marex's dedicated, process management software, is a prime example of PIMS software intended for petrochemical applications. Marex also has proven capabilities in advanced engineering.

Yokogawa is buying 100% of Marex stock from GKN, a global industrial group based in the United Kingdom. The purchase consideration is alomost 300 million yen, or approximately US$2.5 million. After the acquisition, Marex will continue to operate under the same company name and managing director. Yokogawa will support Marex in developing PIMS software products, as well as sell Marex products in the world market.

Plant information management systems are fundamental systems positioned between on-site production control systems in plants, such as distributed control systems, and supervisory management information systems, such as SAP R/3. PIMSs integrate, sort, process and store raw production-control data coming from a DCS or a programmable logic controller in a database for distribution to a variety of plant operation support systems. These support systems often include such sophisticated functions necessary for operation as advanced control, simulation and scheduling. They also embrace supervisory management information systems that are designed to support production control, equipment diagnosis/analysis, quality control and enterprise resource planning. In addition to oil refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants, PIMSs are intended for iron production, pulp & paper, energy supply, pharmaceutical, and foodstuff plants. The market looks bright for the future as an increasing number of plants around the world are introducing PIMSs every year.

Earlier, Yokogawa introduced a new concept, "Enterprise Technology Solutions," that offers customers an even wider choice in products and services, as well as optimum solutions. With the concept in place, Yokogawa is "opening" the borders that constrain the control systems manufacturers serving those customers. One means by which Yokogawa is achieving this is by restructuring service in its systems business. With new alliances and acquisitions, Yokogawa service is becoming more dynamic and global. Specifically, management decisions since the introduction of "Enterprise Technology Solutions" have led to:

• Yokogawa being certified as an "implementation partner" with SAP, a world leader in corporate information management systems;
• a sales partnership with Aspen Technology, Inc.*, a U.S. company that is a world leader in advanced software packages for process control;
• the incorporation of Omega Simulation Corporation, a joint venture with Mitsui Toatsu, in the field of training simulation; and
• the acquisition of Dutch-based GTI-Industrial Automation, a leading supplier throughout the world of safeguard systems.

*AspenTech also has a similar plant management software product called "Infoplus.21." The acquisition of Marex gives Yokogawa even more flexibility in meeting a wide variety of customer needs.

As noted, this latest acquisition gives Yokogawa access to the field of process information management systems with the key functions necessary for plant operation. Bringing Marex into the Yokogawa group further enhances Yokogawa's global service system and will provide customers with yet a wider choice of optimum solutions.