Paris, December 17, 2012 - Fives has just completed the acquisition of KEODS, a French company employing 12 people and providing high-level assistance for the metal industry. This deal strengthens the Steel portfolio of Fives Group with the addition of proven sophisticated expertise, notably focused on carbon flat products for the automotive industry. KEODS brings to Fives its expert steelmaking consultancy skills in improving carbon steel product quality; this quality is a key factor in securing the 'Automotive steel sheet' accreditation required from steel producers to supply the automotive industry. KEODS expertise lies essentially in its highly detailed knowledge of the steelmaking process, which forms the basis of its consultancy services on the upstream side of the production process (in the line start-up phase) and the downstream side (through operation support). It also uses proprietary steelmaking process management and steel coil production management software. The acquisition strengthens the range of services Fives offers in the carbon steel processing line sector (galvanization and annealing lines). The carbon steel knowledge contributed by the teams of KEODS will also enable Fives to develop equipment increasingly tailored to achieving the challenges of steelmakers and their customers. Fives is an industrial engineering group born 200 years ago. It designs and manufactures process equipment, production lines and turnkey plants for the world's largest industrial companies in the aluminum, steel, glass, automotive, logistics, cement and energy sectors, both in emerging and developed countries. In all these areas, Fives designs breakthrough innovations that anticipate and respond to the needs of its customers in terms of profitability, safety and environmental responsibility.