We are pleased to announce that NAES Corporation (headquartered in Washington, the United States; hereinafter “NAES”), a wholly owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”), has acquired PurEnergy LLC (headquartered in New York, the United States; hereinafter “PurEnergy”), a provider of power plant operations and maintenance (hereinafter “O&M") services and asset management services.

NAES is the largest 3rd party power plant O&M services provider in the United States and worldwide. NAES currently provides O&M services to over 120 power plants in the United States and has the track record to provide O&M services to totaling 254 power plants (approximately 72 gigawatts of power generating capacity) in 12 countries. In addition, NAES provides engineering and consulting services to the power industry and fabrication, maintenance and construction services to the power, oil & gas, petrochemical, pulp & paper industries.

PurEnergy, acquired by NAES, has deep expertise and track records not only in power plant O&M services but also in asset management services, wherein the company manages power plant operation, including contract management of power purchase, fuel supplies and other financial agreements. PurEnergy currently provides power plant O&M services to 14 plants in the United States and Canada, and asset management services to 20 plants in the United States. Through this acquisition, NAES will be able to cater to a wider variety of customer needs by benefiting from PurEnergy's capabilities about asset management as a way to optimize the reliability and efficiency of power plant assets, while expanding customers in the power plant O&M services fields.

Through its diversified industry network, ITOCHU plans to further enhance the business value of its portfolio companies in the power industry in the United States where the demand for electricity is projected to increase steadily.