ThyssenKrupp Services is acquiring the business as the result of an international invitation to bid, following Alcoa's decision to focus on its core aerospace business with 2005 sales in excess of $US2.7 Billion (EUR2.1 billion). In all, some 100 employees and sales of EUR75 million will be acquired as part of the Aerospace Service Business. The transaction was consummated by three ThyssenKrupp Services' subsidiaries in the USA, the UK, and Germany.

In North America, ThyssenKrupp Services acquired aluminum inventories plus longstanding service and supply contracts with well-known manufacturers and subcontractors to the aerospace industry. ThyssenKrupp Services is thus expanding locally its own successful business activities. In North America, ThyssenKrupp Services has already established itself as a systems supplier to the aerospace industry and only recently succeeded in concluding a 6-year aluminum services contract with Bombardier Aerospace, Canada. In the UK, ThyssenKrupp Services will acquire the Aluminum Supply Aerospace (ASA) business unit including 100 employees as well as two service centers in Manchester and Northern Ireland, thus establishing a strong and lasting foothold as a supplier to the aerospace industry. On the European Continent, ThyssenKrupp's Services segment acquired the Aerospace Service Business and, just as in the USA, services and supply contracts in addition to inventories.

Says Joachim Limberg, Executive Board member at ThyssenKrupp Services: "The expansion of the aerospace business is of great strategic significance for us. Through our supply chain management solutions we already have a strong footing in the aerospace industry. This acquisition secures us worldwide access to all the well-known aircraft manufacturers and their key suppliers and is an important and sustained step as internationally recognized systems supplier to the aerospace industry."

At present, ThyssenKrupp Services is supplying the aerospace industry through subsidiaries in Brazil, France, the UK, Germany, and North America. The business is flourishing, as exemplified by a recent paradigm and exclusive services contract concluded with Boeing. A 5-year supply chain management services contract has also been concluded with Rolls-Royce.