Herk-de-Stad, 15th Feb. 2006

Nemetschek AG (Munich) has reached an agreement with a group of shareholders of SCIA, among them LMS International NV and GIMV NV, holding the majority in the company, to take over their shares in SCIA.  A shareholders’ agreement has been signed with the management and employees, keeping minority shares in SCIA.

Nemetschek is a worldwide leader in software solutions for the construction industry. For almost four decades, Nemetschek has been developing user-friendly and seamlessly integrated applications for customers in the fields of building design, construction and management.

Nemetschek has more than 700 employees, of which about 400 work in Germany, 150 in Western Europe, 100 in Eastern Europe and about 80 in the U.S. "Global sourcing" and "global selling" are well-established facts of everyday life in Nemetschek's corporate culture. The company's sales network includes 400 sales partners in more than 140 countries with about 160,000 customers. Nemetschek has a consolidated turnover of nearly 100 million € with an operational profit of more than 13 million € in 2005.  Nemetschek is listed at the stock market in Frankfurt (Germany).

SCIA has 90 employees in W. & E. Europe, a turnover of 7,3 million € with a solid profit in 2005 and a continuous growth since over 5 years. SCIA has an international network of branches and distribution partners in 16 countries. Its products have been translated in 10 different languages and over 8000 licenses have been sold to more than 5000 clients in 50 countries.

SCIA will play a leading role in the international expansion of the engineering software within Nemetschek, originally the core business of Nemetschek. Together with other Nemetschek divisions and companies (Friedrich & Lochner, Glaser) SCIA and Nemetschek take the absolute leading position in constructional engineering software in Europe.

The company SCIA is at the doorstep of the fourth step in its 32 years existence; after pioneering came a fast growth, followed by consolidation and now finally being part of an international group.

For more details we refer to the Q & A section.

We will be glad to answer your questions by mail or phone.

J.P. Rammant, CEO

During the ‘Betondag’ (Concrete day) on 17th November 2005, the KOMO product certificate for ‘Calculation software for concrete constructions’ was presented to SCIA. The modules esacd.01.03 and esas.18 of SCIA.ESA PT as well as the PRC.71.03 and PRS.82 of ESA-Prima Win received the KOMO product certificate.

Value
A ‘KOMO product certificate’ is a document in which is explained by an independent institution that the product satisfies the technical specifications as incorporated in the certificate. It is also required that the quality system of the supplier must be such, that the product continuously keeps on meeting the requirements.
The value of this product certificate is that it gives clarity to the user of the product. The user no longer has to check if the product satisfies all technical specifications.

Test sets
The correct functioning of the software is checked by comparing the results with test sets of which input and results are known. At this moment test sets are available for beams of reinforced concrete spanned in one direction and concrete piles. In the future the available test sets will be extended to other fields of application of concrete constructions.

Project: ‘Scheepmakerstoren’, Rotterdam
Constructor and SCIA customer: D3BN
Contractor: Midreth bv
Architect: SOL Design + Development bv

D3BN is a specialised engineering office, active in consultancy with regard to new housing projects, large-scale renovations and infrastructure activities. It uses the experience of earlier more complex projects in apparent more simple assignments in order to obtain the most efficient solutions. D3BN’s knowledge of the newest technologies offers more possibilities for design and utilization of spaces.

The ‘Scheepmakerstoren’ is a block of flats in the centre of Rotterdam. In this building, a total of 24 storeys are reserved for private houses. On the 25th storey is located a sauna with changing rooms and on the 26th storey a swimming pool. In the three storey deep basement is room for about 50 cars. The cars are transported in and out of the basement by means of an automated parking system. On the ground floor and on the first floor is room for part storage space for the residents, part shops. At the back side of the building comes a steel construction, in which the stairs and elevators are located.

The most remarkable thing about this building is the high slenderness of the structure. With a height of 88m, the foundation of the building is about 20 x 20m². Up to the 26th storey ( with a height of 74,5 m) the building is realised in concrete, above it, a steel roof construction rises to the sky. The roof construction is made out of  ‘flaps’, they visually end the building and improve the wind impact around the pool (on storey 26).

The building has a foundation of vibro-combination piles of ø 508/620. The lift pit has a foundation of steel casings, that is incorporated in the sheetpile wall. The sheetpile walls are permanent and form both the basement walls as the foundation for the low-rise building.

The concrete construction with the real loads has been introduced in a 3D model in the computer. From this model - Finite element module of ESA-Prima Win - follow the pile reactions, the deformations and the section forces in the concrete construction.