Thursday February 25, 12:58 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
MBT International Reaches Agreement With Leading John Deere Dealer
Deal Expected to Immediately Add $15 Million of Listings
CASTLE ROCK, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 1999--MBT International, Inc. (OTC BB: MBTI - news), parent company of AgriMall.com (www.agrimall.com), HorseNet.com (www.horsenet.com) and LifeAtHome.com (www.lifeathome.com) announced today that the Company has entered into an agreement in principle with Texas Equipment Corporation (OTC BB: TEXQ - news).
Under the terms of the proposed agreement, Texas Equipment will establish a large storefront in AgriMall.com and list used equipment inventory valued at approximately $15 million.
Texas Equipment is the largest John Deere agricultural dealer in Texas and the second-largest publicly traded dealer in the United States. Texas Equipment operates eight dealerships in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, specializing in the distribution, sale, service and rental of equipment, primarily supplied by Deere & Company (NYSE: DE - news).
''This landmark agreement should help solidify our position as the preeminent agricultural mall on the Internet,'' stated Andy McKinnon, CEO of MBTI. ''We believe it will ultimately provide the Company with an advanced entry point to the 1,700 John Deere dealers in North America, representing combined farm equipment sales of $7 billion.''
According to Paul Condit, President and CEO of Texas Equipment, ''The Internet is fast becoming a new distribution channel for agricultural equipment. After the complete implementation of our new AgriMall.com storefront, we will effectively create amuch broader multi-state agricultural equipment sales force.''
MBTI's strategy is to acquire high-content, value-added, sophisticated, yet navigable, websites and become a leader in the $300 billion agricultural industry. With the recently completed BookStable.com (www.bookstable.com) acquisition, MBTI's database has expanded to over 400,000 users. MBTI continually evaluates highly focused acquisitions that will further increase both the traffic and volume of e-commerce at its AgriMall.com site. MBT applies methodologies currently in use by online auction and marketing houses such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN - news) and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE: RBA - news). MBTI anticipates launching its equipment auction site for demonstration and review on March 1, 1999. MBTI is positioning itself to file an application for listing on the Nasdaq Small Cap Market in the first half of 1999 and has engaged Arthur Anderson as auditor.
Certain statements in this release are forward looking. Although MBT International, Inc. believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from its expectations. For factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and underlying assumptions, see reports by MBT International filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
MBT International, Inc.
Andy McKinnon, 303/688-0244 |
