Heerbrugg, Switzerland/Singapore – January 13th, 2005 – Leica Geosystems’ Surveying & Engineering Division has announced at its press conference in Singapore the establishment of its new Singapore subsidiary Leica Geosystems Technologies Pte Ltd. This new company combines its carved-out business in Leica Instruments (S) Pte Ltd with those from its US operations in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a consequence of its previously announced restructuring plan.
Leica Instruments (S) Pte Ltd was a 50:50 joint venture company between Leica Geosystems, based in Heerbrugg Switzerland, and Leica Microsystems, based in Wetzlar Germany. On 31st December 2004, Leica Geosystems has effectively completed the sale of the 50% share of its ownership in Leica Instruments (S) Pte Ltd to its partner Leica Microsystems. With this transaction, Leica Geosystems has also completed the divestment of its Singapore parts manufacturing operations and will in the future concentrate on the final assembly of its products in the new entity announced today.
In addition to being the competence centre for development and engineering of digital and optical levelling technologies, Leica Geosystems Technologies in Singapore will be the global headquarter for levelling products, including manufacturing and assembly operations. “Singapore is an ideal location to base these product lines as it offers a highly competent workforce and an efficient business infrastructure”, commented Clement Woon, President of the Surveying & Engineering Division. “We experienced the professionalism of the Singapore Economic Development Board, which has efficiently supported and facilitated our project from initiation to completion”, he added.
Leica Geosystems aims to siginificantly increase its share of the global levelling market via its new activities in Singapore. The entity is expected to expand rapidly from 70 people to a workforce of more than 130 people within the next 2 years. The majority of these new hires will be engineers reflecting Leica Geosystems’ investment plans in product development and process engineering.
“We are excited about this step to strengthen our business. We already have a long history of operating in Singapore and a profound understanding of the capacity and capabiltiy of our people in Singapore”, added Svein Vatslid, Vice President, Business Unit Levelling & Alignment and Managing Director of Leica Geosystems Technologies.
Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), said, “EDB warmly welcomes Leica Geosystems’ setting up of its global HQ for its levelling and alignment equipment business unit. This testifies to Singapore’s attractiveness for regional as well as global headquarters operations. LGT will also be leveraging on Singapore’s well-trained and skilled workforce to produce high-quality and high-precision products that are synonymous with the Leica brand, as well as the ‘Made in Singapore’ brand.”
About Leica Geosystems’ Surveying & Engineering Division
Leica Geosystems’ Surveying & Engineering Division provides solutions for positioning and data capture for Surveying, Civil Engineering, Construction and Mining industry segments. With its leading edge technologies included in Totalstation, GPS, Levelling and Machine Automation it has established itself as a leading solutions provider into the spatial information industry. The Surveying & Engineering Division is the largest division within Leica Geosystems, contributing more than 60% of the company’s annual revenue.
About Leica Geosystems
With close to 200 years of pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyse, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyse easily, and visualize and present spatial information in 3D. Those who use Leica products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 2,400 employees in 23 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is a publicly listed company, registered with the Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX).
Additional information can be found at: www.leica-geosystems.com
For further information please contact:
Alessandra Doëll
Director Marketing Communications, Surveying & Engineering
Leica Geosystems AG
Heinrich-Wild-Strasse
CH-9435 Heerbrugg
Switzerland
Tel: +41 71 727 3451 (direct)
Tel: +41 71 727 3131 (operator)
Fax: +41 71 726 5451
E-mail: Alessandra.Doell@leica-geosystems.com
or
Nicholas Bloch
Head of Corporate Communication & Public Relations
Leica Geosystems AG
Heinrich-Wild-Strasse
CH-9435 Heerbrugg
Switzerland
Tel: +41 71 727 4252 (direct)
Tel: +41 71 727 3131 (operator)
Fax: +41 71 726 6252
E-Mail: Nicholas.Bloch@leica-geosystems.com