Marubeni : Japanese Marubeni opens Representative Office in Portugal

Japanese Marubeni opens Representative Office in Portugal Lisbon, 29th may, 2017. Marubeni Corporation (hereinafter, "Marubeni") opened a representative office in Portugal on 5th April 2017. The official ceremony will be on 30th may, 18h30, at the Ritz Hotel, in Lisbon.

The ceremony will include the presence of the Ministry of Infrastructures, Pedro Marques, the President & CEO, Member of the Board of Marubeni, Fumiya Kokubu, the Japanese Ambassador, Hiroshi Azuma and the President of AICEP, Luís Castro Henriques.

Marubeni is a Japanese multinational with over €90bn business volume and almost 40,000 workers. Since 2013, Marubeni has made several investments in Portugal, followed by AICEP, in the power, water utility and gas distribution sectors amounting to over 400m euros. Marubeni has 19% of all the electric production in Portugal, a relevant position at Galp and the water supply for 14 municipalities, including Cascais, Setúbal, Gondomar e Tavira.

With the establishment of its office in Lisbon, Marubeni is further demonstrating its commitment to the Portuguese market and will build on this presence to continue to increase its business activities and investment there.

Marubeni President & CEO, Fumiya Kokubu, commented: "We are very happy with the progress of our strategic investments here and look forward to developing new opportunities. Through the establishment of our Lisbon representative office and working with our Portuguese partners, we want to contribute to even stronger relations between Portugal and Japan".

"Marubeni opening a Representative Office in Portugal is a great example of the increasing attractiveness and unique qualities of our country as a foreign investment destination. AICEP is at the front line supporting this kind of projects that strengthen Portugal's notoriety in the investors radar", President of AICEP, Luís Castro Henriques, said.

Marubeni is also developing partnerships with leading Portuguese companies to expand its operations in such CPLP countries as Brazil, Angola and Mozambique.

In fact, Portugal will serve as a platform to reinforce the Marubeni's presence in African and South-American markets. As a gateway to both the EU, with a population of 500 million, and the Lusophone countries of the CPLP (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, or Community of Portuguese Language Countries) with a population of 250 million, Portugal occupies a strategic position geopolitically linking Europe, the Americas and Africa.

The long history and close relationship between Portugal and Japan have been taken in consideration by Marubeni. Today, Marubeni has 131 representative offices in 68 countries. With more than 150 years of activity (founded in 1858), Marubeni is a sogo-shosha - a business group from the trading sector - that operates in 5 key sectors: food and consumer products, chemical and forest products, energy and metals, power business and plant and transportation and industrial machinery.

Marubeni Corporation Lisbon Liaison Office:

Established: 5 April 2017

Address: Tivoli Forum - Building B-6º E, 6th Floor, Avenida da Liberdade nº 180, Lisbon, Portugal

Marubeni's investments in Portugal:

2013: Acquisition of a 50% share in Portuguese thermal and renewable power assets (3,300MW) from GDF Suez of France (now ENGIE).

2014: Acquisition of Portugal's largest water services company, Administração e Gestão de Sistemas de Salubridade, S.A. ("AGS"), together with Innovation Network Corporation of Japan ("INCJ").

2016: Acquisition of a 22.5% share in Galp Gás Natural Distribuição, S.A. ("GGND"), the gas distribution subsidiary of major energy company Galp Energia, SGPS, S.A., together with Toho Gas.

Date: Tuesday, 30th may, 18h30 Location: Four Seasons Hotel Ritz, Lisbon, Fernando Pessoa Room Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca, 88