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Brown & Sharpe Announces China Joint Venture

5 August 1999

Brown & Sharpe Announces China Joint Venture

    NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I.--Aug. 4, 1999--Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company announced its participation in a Joint Venture ("JV") in Qingdao, Shandong Province on the East Coast of the People's Republic of China, with Qingdao Qianshao Precision Machinery Corp. ("QQMF") and Indivers B.V., of The Netherlands, for the sale, design, and manufacture of local and imported Coordinate Measuring Machines ("CMMs") in China.
    Brown & Sharpe will become the majority shareholder (60%) in the existing JV, formerly known as QI-Tech, now to be named Brown & Sharpe/Qianshao.
    Frank T. Curtin, Brown & Sharpe's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer stated, "We are extremely pleased to become part of this already successful partnership, which will allow us to offer customers in China and throughout Asia the broadest range of CMMs in the industry. The new JV will enable us to provide our Chinese customers excellent local sales and service support for both locally produced and imported CMMs. It further strengthens the global presence of Brown & Sharpe, making us the clear market leader in the Chinese market, which is growing in excess of 30% per year."