Shimadzu Corporation (head office: Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan, President: Akira Nakamoto) established a wholly owned subsidiary Shimadzu Latin America S.A. (SLA) in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (Uruguay hereinafter) in order to strengthen the company’s sales and distribution of analytical and measuring instruments and medical systems and also provide better support for customers and distributors in Central and South America.

Shimadzu Corporation established Shimadzu do Brasil Comercio Ltda. (SBL, located in Sao Paulo in Brazil) in 1997 and the company has mediated sales of Shimadzu products, provided services for them in Brazil, and provided instructions and support to distributors in each country in Central and South America. As Shimadzu’s business expanded in Central and South America, the percentage of SBL’s businesses within Brazil increased. Also, regulations in Brazil restricted the company’s trading activities with other countries in Central and South America.

Uruguay is located between Brazil and Argentina. The capital Montevideo has good access to major cities in South America. It is 30 minutes to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires by air and two hours to Sao Paulo in Brazil where SBL is located by air. Moreover, Uruguay has some advantageous features. It has free trade zones where foreign-capital organizations can establish a company easily, companies can have bonded warehouses, and the degree of financial freedom is high as compared to surrounding countries. Since Uruguay’s national language is Spanish, it will be easier for SLA to strengthen sales capabilities and support systems for customers and distributors in other Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America, as compared to SBL located in Brazil, where national language is Portuguese.

After the establishment of SLA, SLA will become the parent company of SBL and its financial settlement will be consolidated with SBL so that SLA will be the base that reflects Shimadzu’s business results in Central and South America.

Overview of the New Company

Company name: Shimadzu Latin America S.A. (SLA)

Capital: 1.5 million US dollars

Location of the head office:Montevideo, Oriental Republic of Uruguay (in the Zonamerica free trade zone)

Representative: Akihiko Kato, President

Staff: 10 (including two Japanese members) at the start

Scope of business: Sales and distribution of analytical and measuring instruments and medical systems as well as support for customers and distributors in Central and South America

Annual sales 2014 (planned): 70 million US dollars (consolidated net sales with SBL)

Established: November 1, 2013