PRESS RELEASE

Materialise Broadens the Range of its Software Solutions by Acquiring the CENAT Embedded Software Platform for Additive Manufacturing Control Systems

March 12, 2015

Complementary transaction brings additional solution to machine manufacturers and users looking to produce high quality end parts with 3D printing.

Materialise NV (NASDAQ: MTLS), a leading provider of additive manufacturing (AM) software and of sophisticated 3D printing solutions in the medical and industrial markets, today announced the acquisition of Belgian-based CENAT, a developer of embedded computing software and solutions for additive manufacturing control systems. Materialise acquired CENAT for an upfront cash payment and will be required to make certain earn-out payments if certain conditions are satisfied. This transaction will enable Materialise to add new software solutions for quality control to its open platform for additive manufacturing, which already includes tools for everything from file preparation to complete automation and control systems. The high-performance embedded software and processing power of CENAT’s AM machine control systems, which have been developed in collaboration with Materialise, will support the extremely demanding quality control systems and processes needed to assure the correct production of printed end-parts in industries such as aerospace and medical.

Materialise founder and CEO Fried Vancraen commented, “We are very proud to welcome the CENAT team to the Materialise Group. We began collaborating with CENAT in response to a growing demand for a greater control over quality for the manufacturing end-use parts, both within our own AM facilities as well as in those of our customers. As the system being developed was complementary to the broad range of solutions in our Open Software Platform for 3D printing, the decision was made to bring the CENAT system in-house and to the market as part of our broad range of software solutions for industrial additive manufacturing.”

“CENAT is very enthusiastic about joining the Materialise group”, stated Stijn Schacht, founder and CEO of CENAT. “We have enjoyed the close collaboration with Materialise’s R&D team in the development of an AM machine control system and look forward to furthering this work from within Materialise. Furthermore, by teaming up with such established players in the AM industry, we are very excited to be increasing the reach of a technology that answers a growing need for greater control over quality and repeatability.”

For 25 years, Materialise has been constantly focused on driving 3D printing forward with innovative applications, operating in an open ecosystem. The company’s market-leading software offers a neutral platform to link all 3D printing applications with any 3D printer in the industry and, in 2014, Materialise announced multiple partnerships with 3D printer manufacturers to create build processors that link software even more directly with the machine. This latest acquisition will further improve the transfer of data between machine and user, enabling a potentially greater amount of print success and allowing users to manufacture even more complex and higher quality parts.

About Materialise

With its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and branches worldwide, Materialise is a provider of additive manufacturing (AM) software solutions and sophisticated 3D printing services in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design and consumer products. Materialise has been playing an active role in the field of AM since 1990, through its involvement in AM for industrial and medical applications, by providing biomedical and clinical solutions such as medical image processing and surgical simulations and by developing unique solutions for its customers' prototyping, production, and medical needs. For additional information, please visit: www.materialise.com.

About CENAT

Based in Gent, Belgium, CENAT is part of T&M solutions Group, a Group focused on creating custom-made multi-disciplinary solutions to test, measure, inspect, assemble and control products in almost all segments of the manufacturing industry. These solutions contribute to protecting customers’ reputations by helping them to enhance their product quality and to optimize their production processes. The CENAT team is comprised of four experts specialized in the development of control systems and the corresponding embedded software, with a recent focus on applying the expertise of T&M solutions to the additive manufacturing industry.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding, among other things, management's expectations regarding the benefits to Materialise associated with the CENAT acquisition and its technology, as well as the plans, objectives, expectations, strategies and prospects of the company, both financial and business.  Such statements are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks. When used in this press release, the words “estimate,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “plan,” “intend,” “believe,” “forecast,” “will”, “may”, “could”, “might”, “aim”, “should” and variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations. These expectations, beliefs and projections are given in good faith and management believes there is a reasonable basis for them. However, management cannot offer any assurance that its expectations, beliefs and projections will actually be achieved. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events, competitive dynamics and industry change, and depend on economic circumstances that may or may not occur in the future or may occur on longer or shorter timelines than anticipated.  Management cautions readers that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond its control. All of the forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations.  Management makes no commitment, and disclaims any duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or changes in its expectations.

LHA investor contact

Harriet Fried/Jody Burfening

+1-212-838-3777
hfried@lhai.com


ICR press contact

 
Cory Ziskind

T: 646-227-1232
Cory.ziskind@icrinc.com 

Materialise press contact

Nils Torke

Email: nils.torke@materialise.de

press@materialise.com
Twitter: @MaterialiseNV


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