ARRK Product Development Group is reporting that it has purchased an 82% stake in one of Europe's leading Design, Engineering and Analysis companies.

ARRK Product Development Group is reporting that it has purchased an 82% stake in one of Europe's leading Design, Engineering and Analysis companies. (Note:This transaction is subject to the approval of the German Cartel Authorities) PCL Group is headquartered in Munich and, with turnover of 55 million GBP and 600 employees, is a leading independent provider of engineering, design and computer simulation services for the product development process in the European automotive, aerospace and transportation industries. The Group is a strategic supplier to a number of European blue chip companies including BMW, DaimlerChrysler, EADS, Scania and VW Group.

PCL operates through three branded subsidiaries, P + Z Engineering in Germany, Tesco in Italy and ARTWARE in France.

ARRK PDG Limited, wholly owned by ARRK Corporation of Japan, a Publicly quoted company on Japan's JASDAQ market, have acquired an 82% share of PCL Group from Primary Capital, a UK based private equity investment company, for an undisclosed sum.

ARRK PDG Limited will purchase 79,400 out of the total of 96,100 shares, the remaining shares staying with current management, who will continue to lead, manage and develop the business.

This will further enhance both ARRK's and PCL Group's capabilities and significantly strengthen and expand the potential service offering to customers.

'The opportunity to service our customers, not only with our individual services, but enabling us to further develop the potential of synergy of services, through to the provision of real Full Line Service support in terms of Turnkey projects is both exciting and we believe necessary both for ARRK, PCL and our customers.

We must continue to develop capability to meet our customers needs and assist them in achieving their ever more demanding targets ' both Andrew Williams Managing Director of PCL and Peter Rawson of ARRK confirm.

PCL Group will continue to be run by the current management team, led by Andrew Williams.

The team, supported by experienced engineering staff in all its subsidiaries, have a track record of success in developing PCL Group over the past 10 years.

Together, this team will now be able to further grow and develop the businesses, building on the significant success and reputation already gained with their customers across Europe.

As well as continuing to work closely with all its current customers, the PCL team will also develop opportunities with other ARRK companies in Europe and Worldwide.

Peter Rawson, Managing Director for ARRK in Europe explained, 'The opportunity to bring a successful and experienced team within the ARRK network and to extend the width of our capabilities exactly fits our aims of enhancing our ability to support customers in Europe and Worldwide.

We welcome all the PCL Group members into the ARRK family and really look forward to working together and opening up many more opportunities for them to further advance their significant capabilities, expertise and customer offerings'.

Andrew Williams, Managing Director of PCL looking at the future stated: 'We are delighted to have achieved a successful outcome for all existing shareholders and welcome ARRK as a new shareholder and partner with management.

For us the complimentary services offered by ARRK worldwide and their financial backing opens up substantial new opportunities for the continued development of our business.

It allows us to offer Turnkey project possibilities to our customers and importantly to support them globally.

In addition being part of the ARRK organisation provides potential new opportunities for all our staff.' He continued, 'ARRK is committed to develop further its presence in Europe, which provides us with an exciting platform for the future, from which to develop PCL further through both organic growth and acquisition.' It is intended that the operating companies, P and Z Engineering, TESCO and ARTWARE will continue to be run under their own names and overall as a separate business, although obviously with new majority owners and will be part of the extensive growing network of ARRK businesses around the world.

ARRK, employing around 250 people in the UK, over 400 in Europe and over 10,000 worldwide, specialises in the fields of Design, Engineering, Rapid Prototyping, Pre Production Services, Tooling and selected areas of niche Production in Plastics and Metals.

Industries serviced include Automotive, Aerospace, Telecommunications, Business Machines, Household Goods, Medical Equipment, Consumer Goods and the Design and Engineering community.

With sister companies truly worldwide, ARRK has a multitude of product development capabilities offered to customers locally, either as individual services or through to Full Line Services, from Design to Production