Ajinomoto Co., Inc. today signed an agreement to form a capital and business alliance with YAMAKI Co., Ltd. Ajinomoto and YAMAKI share a common management vision of contributing to a healthy diet with delicious food for consumers by broadening the use of Japanese-style seasonings, starting with dried bonito, a traditional ingredient of Japanese food and a core ingredient in both companies' Japanese seasonings business.

The two companies decided that broadly complementing each other's businesses could facilitate business expansion and cost reductions.

Ajinomoto plans to acquire a 33.4% equity stake in YAMAKI by the end of March 2007. In addition to a transfer of existing shares of YAMAKI, Ajinomoto will also receive new shares through a third-party allocation. Accompanying the acquisition, Ajinomoto plans to send several directors to YAMAKI, which will become an equity affiliate of Ajinomoto.

At the same time, YAMAKI will acquire a 20% equity stake in Ajinomoto's subsidiary Bonito Technical Laboratory, and plans to send one director to that company.

The main areas of the business alliance are expected to include:
(1)Mutual licensing of intellectual property and know-how in the area of Japanese-style seasonings,
(2)Joint research on dried bonito and bonito by-products, and
(3)Wide-ranging cost reductions, including co-purchasing of raw materials and joint distribution.

Ajinomoto continues to grow in the wide-ranging business areas of food products, amino acids and pharmaceuticals, with a focus on "tastiness" and "health." In the food products business, Ajinomoto aims to promote healthy diets with delicious food, centered on its seasoning segment, which includes umami seasoning AJI-NO-MOTO and Japanese, Chinese and Western-style "dashi" (soup stock) seasonings.

YAMAKI is engaged in creating unique Japanese-style products that emphasize their natural value, centered on the core product dried bonito and extending to instant dashi and Japanese noodle dipping sauce. The company's Japanese noodle sauce shows high growth potential due to YAMAKI's unique production technology.