Yamatake to Change Its Name to "Azbil"

- Group companies in Japan to add "Azbil" for uniformity -

Yamatake Corporation (TOKYO:6845) of the azbil Group has announced that it will change its name to "Azbil" to consolidate and strengthen the "azbil" brand.

New company name: Azbil Corporation
Date of change: April 1, 2012

Reason for company name change

Since it was founded in 1906 as Yamatake Shokai, Yamatake has been meeting the needs of society through automation with the aim of "freeing people from drudgery." This philosophy has been carried on progressively over the years; such as in "Savemation" (saving through automation) and in the present Group philosophy of "human-centered automation." The Group symbol, azbil, representing the "human-centered automation" philosophy, was formulated five years ago, and it has since been gaining recognition in Japan and overseas. Yamatake has therefore decided to change its name from "Yamatake" to "Azbil" on the occasion of its 105th anniversary.

Objectives for the name change to Azbil Corporation are as follows:

1)		Unify the three names (Group philosophy, Group name, Group company names) to develop and strengthen the brand globally.
		- Group philosophy: Human-centered automation: Automation Zone Builder (introduced October 2006)
		- Group name: azbil Group (introduced October 2008)
		- Group company names: Uniformly add "azbil" (to Group companies in Japan planned from April 2012)
		*Overseas affiliates have already included "azbil" in their company names starting in January 2009
2)		Raise recognition of the azbil Group as a corporate entity that contributes to solving customers' issues with both "products and on-site solutions" through its multiple contact points with customers.
3)		Enhance awareness of being a good corporate citizen and carry out activities (CSR, social contribution, etc.) as a unified Group.

In striving to realize the azbil Group's long-term goal of becoming a "top-class global automation enterprise," we will powerfully advance these measures, which incorporate our strong intention to reform business structures and operations and work toward raising the enterprise value of the Group as a whole.

Along with the name change to Azbil Corporation, the names of Group companies in Japan will also change; Yamatake Shokai will become Azbil Trading, and Kimmon Manufacturing will become Azbil Kimmon. These changes are planned to take effect April 1, 2012.

Contact:

Yamatake Corporation
Masayoshi Kogai/Takashi Yoshihara/Hiroko Sudo, +81-3-6810-1006
Public Relations Section, Corporate Planning Dept.
Email: publicity@azbil.com
URL: http://www.azbil.com/