Essilor International SA Announces Acquisitions in North Africa and Latin America; Sets Up New Subsidiary in Colombia and Announces Acquisition of CSC Labs

Essilor International SA announced that it has signed five new partnership agreements in North Africa and Latin America. In Morocco, the Company acquired a 65% interest in Optiben, a company engaged in ophthalmic lens distribution, and a 65% stake in prescription laboratory VST Lab. In Tunisia, Essilor has signed an agreement to acquire a majority interest in prescription laboratory SIVO and its marketing subsidiary SICOM, both located in the central port city of Sfax. In Latin America, the Company announced Satisloh's acquisition of a majority stake in CM Equipamentos Opticos de Precisao. CM is active in the manufacture of ophthalmic lens surfacing machines. Essilor has also entered the Dominican Republic by acquiring a majority interest in Opti Express, a prescription laboratory. In addition to these two new partnerships, Essilor in late 2011 set up a sales subsidiary in Colombia. Essilor Colombia will be responsible for directly distributing products sold under various Essilor brands. These various transactions represent aggregate annual revenue of around EUR 21 million. In the United States, Essilor announced that it has acquired a majority stake in CSC Laboratories, a prescription laboratory based in Watsonville, California. Lastly, Essilor has also acquired Professional Ophthalmic Laboratories, a company based in Roanoke, Virginia. Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed.