Three firms partner on Nanotechnology Center of Composites

Each party – HCC, DowAksa and FIEP – will ultimately own one third of the total charter capital of the Nanotechnology Center of Composites. When legal agreements are finalized in the next several months, DowAksa will become an equal participant of the Nanotechnology Center of Composites. DowAksa is anticipating to take part in the second round of financing of NCC and invest in NCC Charter Capital the amount of approximately 134 Million Rubles (approximately $4.3 Million USD) which translates to a 33 1/3 percent share.

This anticipated investment is included in the current DowAksa 10 year business plan and is funded by the initial investment by Shareholders. HCC and FIEP are also anticipating to take part in the second round of financing and are going to invest their portion of contribution simultaneously with DowAksa.

Mehmet Ali Berkman, Chairman of Aksa Board and Deputy Chairman of DowAksa Board of Directors; Douglas Parks, a member of the DowAksa Board of Directors and Dow’s Global Business Director for Lightweight Materials and Governmental Markets; Anatoly Chubais, RUSNANO CEO and Chairman of Executive Board; and Leonid Melamed, CEO of HCC, signed the agreement at the “Composites without Borders” conference, which was part of the Open Innovations Forum agenda in Moscow, taking place on October 31 – November 2, 2013.

This document is another important milestone in the parties' cooperation, emphasizing the intentions outlined earlier in the 2013 MOU at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Already today the Nanotechnology Center of Composites is a foundation for start-ups in production of polymer composite materials for the growing industrial sectors including construction, energy and automotive. By now, only one line has been launched in the Nanotechnology Center of Composites to produce polymer composite materials to be used in construction, energy, IT; the ?enter is also equipped with the high-tech scientific laboratory and one of its kind multi-axial machine. The 2nd production line is to be launched soon. The Center will showcase latest technologies of polymer composites processing in Russia.

"Dow and Aksa came together last year to produce carbon fiber, a true material of the future. With many uses still early in their product life cycles, carbon fiber’s strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, longer life time, less thermal expansion and better flame resistance make it highly competitive against other traditional composite materials,” said Mehmet Ali Berkman, Deputy Board Chairman of DowAksa.