Rieter Holding (Winterthur / Switzerland; www.rieter.com) and the international technology group Andritz (Graz / Austria; www.andritz.com) signed an agreement on 11 December 2009 on the sale of Rieter’s wholly owned French subsidiary Rieter Perfojet (Montbonnot / France). The divestment reflects the decision to refocus Rieter’s textile division on its core business. The companies agreed not to disclose details of the purchase price. Closing is planned for early 2010, pending the approval of the competition authorities.

Rieter Perfojet develops and manufactures machinery and equipment for the production of nonwovens. It has 50 employees and sales are around CHF 40m (EUR 26.4m). The products and technologies for hydroentanglement of nonwoven fabrics are marketed worldwide under the "JetLace" and "SpunJet" brand names.