Berge, Ansa and Toyota Motor Corporation Agree on Spanish Distribution

MADRID―BERGE Y CIA, S.A. (Berge), AUTOMOVILES NIPONES, S.A. (Ansa) and TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC), business partners since 1983 in the sales and service of Toyota vehicles and parts in Spain*, announced today an agreement that will place complete ownership of Toyota España (TES) under TMC.

The agreement, approved by the European Commission, details that TMC will purchase from Ansa on Sept. 27 the 65% share Ansa currently owns in TES, the official Toyota vehicle distributor in Spain* established as a 65/35 joint venture by Ansa and TMC in October 1992. This new arrangement will give TMC 100% control of TES, bringing to a cordial close TES' original joint-venture format.

This agreement goes along with TMC's pan-European strategy of directly controlling product distribution in key markets, as it aims to achieve a 5% market share in Europe by 2005.

The deal reached between Berge, Ansa and TMC also defines that a Berge subsidiary, Lexus Espana, S.A. will be appointed as the distributor of Toyota's Lexus-brand vehicles in Spain* for a period of five years from the date of transfer of Ansa's shares of TES to TMC.

Further, Toyota and the Berge group have expressed their desire to continue to cooperate in benchmark competitive automotive services, such as port handling and vehicle transport, in Spain.

Finally, Toyota will pay due consideration to Berge's proposal on the automobile business in Latin America.

*Excluding the Canary Islands