Observer's Board of Directors proposes extraordinary general meeting to be held April 25, 2001 to decide on single class

* Observer's Board of Directors proposes extraordinary general meeting to be held April 25, 2001 to decide on single class of stock * The Annual General Meeting will be moved to May 28, 2001 The Board of Directors for Observer Aktiebolag ("Observer") proposes an extraordinary general meeting to be held on April 25, 2001 to vote on an amendment to the Articles of Association aimed at combining the company's shares of class of stock A and B into a single class of stock. The reason for the Board's proposal is that by creating a single class of stock it expects to increase liquidity in the company's shares and thereby reduce transaction costs for trading, and also reduce the investors' liquidity risk. Lower transaction costs and liquidity risk are expected to facilitate lower future costs when the company seeks to procure capital. For this reason the Board believes that a single class of stock, and thereby an equal distribution of votes among all its shares, would benefit the company from a financial standpoint and create value for all shareholders. The change will become effective subject to the decision by the Annual General Meeting of Bure Equity AB ("Bure") no later than June 30, 2001 to distribute Bure's holding of Class A shares in Observer, and that ten business days have passed after the record date for such a distribution. The decision will be registered with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office only when these conditions are met, though no earlier than July 31, 2001. Shareholders, including the company's principle shareholder Bure, representing about 46 percent of all shares and about 72 percent of the total voting rights for all shares in the company as well as about 87 percent of all Class A shares, have declared that they support the Board of Directors' proposal to establish a single class of stock. In order to allow new shareholders who receive their shares in connection with Bure Equity's distribution of its holding to vote at Observer's Annual General Meeting, the Board has decided to reschedule the AGM on May 28, 2001. Sollentuna March 23, 2001 Observer Aktiebolag (publ) Board of Directors For further information, contact: Robert Lundberg, Chief Executive Officer and President, telephone +46 (0)8-507 410 10, e-mail robert.lundberg@observergroup.com Jan-Erik Jansson, Chief Financial Officer, telephone +46 (0)8-507 410 14, e-mail jan-erik.jansson@observergroup.com Per Blixt, Senior VP Corporate Communications, telephone +46 (0)8-507 410 12/+46 (0)70-549 28 08, e-mail per.blixt@observergroup.com This press release is also available on www.observergroup.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/23/20010323BIT00870/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/23/20010323BIT00870/bit0001.pdf