British royal mail and swedish citymail enters into a close co-operation in sweden-

BRITISH ROYAL MAIL AND SWEDISH CITYMAIL ENTERS INTO A CLOSE CO-OPERATION IN SWEDEN- Royal Mail and CityMail enters into a close co-operation in Sweden addressing the market for outbound and inbound international mail. CityMail now operates Royal Mail's international despatch arrangements in Sweden. CityMail also investigates the opportunity for entering the domestic office mail market in co-operation with Royal Mail. The outbound international mail market from Sweden is estimated to almost SEK 1 billion and is today a de-facto monopoly market for Sweden Post. The prices are relatively high. The strategy of CityMail is to challenge the Swedish monopoly and grasping market shares in a new environment open for competition. This is part of the new era with large international groups acquiring or forming strategic alliances in order to build platforms for further expansion in Sweden and international markets. "I see this co-operation as a breakthrough and a sign that CityMail is active in a sector with large international potential after the decline of different monopolies. The telecom sector has come much further, but now starts the real competition within the postal area. Now we are taking this strategic step both in order to strengthen our core business as well as taking the opportunity to enter into a new interesting business segment and this together with one of the leading postal operators in the world" says Bror Anders Månsson, Managing Director CityMail. CityMail is a specialist in computer-addressed mail. CityMail is leading development within the segment. Today, CityMail has close to 1,000 employees and handles over 200 million items of mail annually, with distribution to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Gotland, and Småland. Today, CityMail distributes computer-sorted mail to more than 1,300,000 households and companies. CityMail Sweden AB is owned by, among others, Henderson Investors, the Company's management, Royal Mail, Zenith and Fidelity. CityMail was introduced on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's O-list in July 1998. Inquiries are handled by: Håkan Ohlsson, Information Chief at CityMail +46 8 709 43 00, +46 707 52 42 01, hakan.o@citymail.se Sebastian Ehrnrooth +46 8 412 54 21, +46 708 29 14 21 Please visit us at our home page at: wwwcitymail.se ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/02/19/19990219BIT00220/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/02/19/19990219BIT00220/bit0002.pdf