Ajinomoto Co., Inc. acquired Amoy Food Group Companies from Groupe Danone

January 12th, 2006 － Tokyo － Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (Ajinomoto; President & CEO: Norio Yamaguchi; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan) today announced that it has successfully completed its acquisition of Amoy Food Group Companies (Amoy Food Group) from Danone Asia Pte Ltd (a subsidiary of Groupe Danone S.A.) for approximately HK$1,845 million. This transaction includes the issued stock of Amoy Food Group, a shareholder loan from Danone Asia to Amoy Food Group as well as the intellectual property rights of Amoy Food Group business. On completion of the transaction, Ajinomoto has acquired Chinese soy sauce business and frozen dimsum food business which Amoy Food Group operates in Hong Kong, North America and Europe. It has also acquired 60% stake in Chinese soy sauce joint ventures in China, Shanghai Amoy Foods Group, which are owned by Amoy Food Group. The relevant information on Amoy Food Group is as follows: 1. Hong Kong Amoy Food Group 　　 1) Amoy Food Limited (Hong Kong) 　　 － Business: “Amoy” brand Chinese ethnic sauces 　　 － Plant facility: sauce plant at Tai Po, Hong Kong 　　 － Main sales area: Hong Kong, North America (sold through its 100% owned subsidiary, Amoy North America Inc.), Europe (sold through HP Foods Ltd., the licensee of “Amoy” brand in Europe), and southern part of China 　　 － Business base: No.1 share in Hong Kong soy sauce category; No.1 share in retail soy sauce segment in UK; profitable food service business in Chinese soy sauce segment of North America. 　　 2) Convenience Foods International Limited (Hong Kong) 　　 － Business: frozen dimsum food under “Amoy” brand as well as “Royal Dragon” brand 　　 － Plant facility: frozen food plant at Shenzhen, China: Shenzhen Amoy Foods Co. Ltd., 95% owned subsidiary of Convenience Foods International Limited 　　 － Main sales area: Hong Kong, southern part of China, North America and Australia 　　 － Business base: No.1 share in Hong Kong frozen dimsum category; high growth of Chinese ethnic frozen food in North America and Australia 2. Shanghai Amoy Foods Group (Shanghai) 　　 － Convenience Foods International Ltd. owns 60% share of: 　　　Shanghai Amoy Foods Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Jinshan Amoy Foods Co., Ltd. 　　 － Business: “Amoy” brand Chinese ethnic sauces 　　 － Plant facility: Two sauce plants in Shanghai 　　 － Main sales area: 1st tier cities of China such as Tianjin, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenyang, Beijing and Hangzhou. 　　 － Business base: No.1 share in Tianjin, Xian and other major cities 3. Size of acquired businesses: 　　 － Consolidated Sales : HK$ 667 million as of FY2004 　　 － Consolidated Operating Profit : HK$ 84 million as of FY2004 　　 － Employee : 2,400 (Hong Kong Amoy Food Group 1,700, Shanghai Amoy Foods Group 700) Through this transaction, Ajinomoto has obtained a strong foothold as well as the “Amoy” brand which has significant awareness in Chinese ethnic sauce segment and frozen dimsum foods. On top of that, Ajinomoto will seek the opportunities of possible synergies among Amoy Food Group and Ajinomoto’s own operations. Upon completion of acquisition, Ajinomoto will assign some officers to Amoy Food Group to facilitate the above-mentioned synergies as soon as possible, however, it will retain the current independent management team to preserve its entrepreneurial corporate culture which gives high respect to diversity of nationalities and cultures. Ajinomoto expects the acquisition will have no significant impact on the earnings for the current fiscal year. Appendix: 1. Products of Amoy Food Group 2. Financial information on Amoy Food Group 3. Overview of Amoy Food Group Appendix 1　Products of Amoy Food Group Hong Kong Amoy Food Group Chinese ethnic sauce segment Frozen dimsum food segment: Shanghai Amoy Foods Group 2 Financial information on Amoy Food Group Year ended 31 December 2003 Y31 December 2004 (Currency) (HKD mn) (JPY bn) (HKD mn) (JPY bn) Sales 703 10.6 667 10.0 Operating profit 111 1.6 84 1.3 *Exchange rate 1 HKD = JPY 14.98 Sales by segments Year ended 31 December 2003 Y31 December 2004 (Currency) (HKD mn) (JPY bn) (HKD mn) (JPY bn) Chinese sauce 474 7.2 431 6.5 Frozen dimsum 229 3.4 236 3.5 *Exchange rate 1 HKD = JPY 14.98 3 Overview of Amoy Food Group

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