ITP Acquires 100% of casting subsidiary PCB

ITP has acquired 20% of the shares of PCB, which was in the hands of Switzerland's Precicast SA. Both companies had founded Precicast Bilbao in 1999. Through this acquisition, PCB will become a wholly owned subsidiary of ITP.

Casting activities at PCB are strategic to ITP, as they allow developing a differentiated product offering in relation to other companies in the sector. In this sense, the operation is included in the forecasted growth plans that are part of ITP's current 2016-2020 Strategic Plan, which has recently been launched.

As part of this Strategic Plan, significant growth is expected in the casting business, which will require considerable investments within the context of an industrial plan that includes both the PCB plant located in Barakaldo and the future PCB plant in Sestao, the inauguration of which is planned for the first half of 2017. Both plants are located in the Basque Country, Spain.

In this sense, 2015 already witnessed the announcement of an expansion of PCB capacities, with an investment of 20 million euros during the 2015-2021 period, which will focus on stepping up R&D efforts and growing the number of projects within the existing client portfolio. The company also expects to increase its workforce significantly, with the addition of an estimated 200 new jobs during this period.

ITP's CEO Ignacio Mataix remarked in relation to this operation: 'We have set ourselves ambitious goals for the coming years and PCB is one of the business areas in which we expect to see greater growth. The casting business is a key part of ITP's strategy. Some of the main engine companies in the global aeronautical market are among PCB's clients. This operation allows us to consolidate and develop this business, which represents a competitive advantage to the company'.

The company will continue to use the PCB brand name and its legal form will become Precision Casting Bilbao S.A.U. Furthermore, the reference 'Precicast' will no longer be used and therefore, minimum changes have been made to its corporate identity (logo).