the automotive markets worldwide have changed a lot in the past few years. I am talking about the increasing amount of electronics in vehicles, the growing importance of the emerging markets like India, China, and Russia, the high diesel proportion and ageing vehicle stocks in Europe, as well as global environmental and resource debates. These developments also have effects on our workshop business. In order to keep up with these changes, we not only have to offer innovative products, but also ensure that the product portfolio and our presence on the individual markets are optimally oriented.

Bosch Automotive Aftermarket offers vehicle workshops worldwide spare parts, modern testing and diagnosis technology, as well as-and this is becoming more and more important-data and technical expertise. In addition, this division coordinates the world's largest workshop network in the independent workshop market. There are now more than 14,000 Bosch Car Service centers in 141 countries. In 2007, sales from the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division amounted to around EUR 3.3 billion. The market for vehicle products relevant for us had a volume of around EUR 38.6 billion over the same period. At the end of 2007, around 5000 employees worldwide were employed in the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division, 1900 of these in Germany.

We want to offer our customers an optimal product portfolio and so continue to grow in the future. We will firstly attain this goal through innovations – you only have to think of our electronic diagnosis testers and the excellent corresponding workshop software Esitronic. But growth can not be obtained by innovations alone. Therefore, we are also continuing to pursue our acquisitions policy, which has the sectoral and regional balancing out of the business as its aim. Therefore, in the past two years, we have acquired several companies and established several joint ventures. In this way, we add to our product and service range and either open up new markets or cover existing ones better.

Complete product range in the areas of wheel alignment, brake testing and tire service equipment
A declared growth area for Bosch is diagnostics. A sustainable expansion of our world market share in diagnostics is only possible in the medium term via external growth. Therefore, we expanded this area in April 2007 with the acquisitions of Beissbarth GmbH of Munich and the Italian Sicam s.r.l. Beissbarth will be familiar to you as a manufacturer of equipment for chassis alignment and brake testing. In addition, it also distributes tire service equipment. In the case of Sicam, by contrast, the main emphasis is on the production and sale of tire service equipment. In this way, we can offer our customers in vehicle workshops worldwide an even broader product range and cover the whole area of wheel service with our workshop technology.

Diagnosis products for emerging markets
The change in the automotive market is also apparent in another area. More and more companies, big and small, including from the emerging nations, are represented here in Frankfurt with their products for the workshop. Some are offering products with an attractive price-performance ratio. China is a growth market for the diagnostics business. Bosch Automotive Aftermarket is also adapting to this change: in March of this year, we signed the purchase agreement for the acquisition of the Chinese diagnostics equipment specialist Weicon. The company from Shenzhen generated sales of EUR 3 million in 2007 with 100 employees. Weicon produces and markets diagnostics equipment in the medium price range along with the corresponding software. The company is therefore of strategic importance for supplying the emerging markets of China or India with diagnostics products. On top of that, we now possess our own development and production base in China.

Expansion of the diagnostics business in North America
But we are also continuing our expansion in what is by far the biggest automotive market in the world, namely North America. To expand the diagnostics business of the North American Automotive Aftermarket division, we acquired the Accuturn company in Richmond, Virginia on April 1, 2008. The sale of workshop technology requires a competent service network. With the well-established distribution and service network of Accuturn in North America, especially for chassis alignment and tire service equipment products, we have taken a big step forwards there.

Further development of the air conditioning service business
We are preparing another big step in the area of air conditioning service: we are planning a cooperation with the Danish company Agramkow Fluid Systems A/S for the service of modern vehicle air conditioning systems with the refrigerant CO2. In close cooperation with German car manufacturers, Agramkow has developed and tested initial CO2 service devices according to their specifications. Bosch will sell these devices. In this way, we will offer our customers a complete range of air conditioning service devices. This will make us one of the first global suppliers of service technology for CO2 air conditioning systems.

Strategic growth area: brake pads
Just a few days ago, we were able to announce a breakthrough for the development of the very important brake replacement parts business with the acquisition of the brake pad business of the American Morse Group. The Morse Group develops, produces and markets brake pads and brake calipers. Our brake component business will be strengthened two-fold by the takeover: firstly, Bosch will produce brake pads itself in the future and will therefore be able to offer its own brake pad products. Secondly, we reinforce our position in the North American aftermarket in a targeted way. We have now come full circle: it was also in the area of parts that we began the implementation of our acquisition strategy in North America in 2006. Back then, we purchased the entire Purolator filter division from ArvinMeritor together with Mann+Hummel.

Expansion of the repair business
We also pay great attention to our special replacement parts program Bosch Exchange for cost- and time-effective repairs, which we are continually expanding. Through the expansion of the product range, but also through the acquisition of Holger Christiansen A/S at the end of January 2008, we were able to reinforce this area, particularly in the product field of starters and alternators, but also that of air conditioning compressors. With the Danish company, we have also gained a broad electrical replacement parts range, with strong brands and strong sales.
We have made good progress in many areas of our product range. Robert Hanser will now give you further examples from across the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket portfolio.

Thank you very much for your attention.

RF00015 - September 2008