Sweden Post and CityMail in new cooperation: Formation of a company for Internet-based address updating

Sweden Post and CityMail in new cooperation: Formation of a company for Internet-based address updating Sweden Post and CityMail have signed a letter of intent regarding the start-up of a new operation entitled AddressPoint. The company will offer address updating services to companies with large customer registers and updating requirements. The parties will also establish a web-site which is primarily directed to private persons who are in the process of changing address. Both of the activities contain a significant international potential. Pursuant to the agreement between the parties, AddressPoint will be 60 percent owned by Sweden Post and 40 percent owned by CityMail. The updating services will be launched in the third quarter of 2000. The formation of AddressPoint is a continuation of the cooperation between Sweden Post and CityMail which commenced during the autumn of 1999 with CityMail's acquisition of 15 percent of the shares in Svensk Adressändring AB, which was previously wholly-owned by Sweden Post. Svensk Adressändring AB is responsible for the compilation and verification of 850,000 address changes each year. Additionally the company handles 300 000 transactions regarding temporary redirection and storage of mail. The company is at the forefront of the development of compilation systems with regard to address changes via telephone and the Internet. With AddressPoint's updating system, possibilities are created for companies to obtain updating which is as rapid as that enjoyed by postal operators. - Sweden possesses a very good infrastructure with respect to the compilation and brokering of address changes, not least thanks to Svensk Adressändring AB. There is a great deal of long-term potential for establishing AdressPoint AB in other countries as well. In the Nordic region alone, the market for address updating amounts to several hundred million SEK, says Bo Alerfeldt, the head of Sweden Post Letter services. As a further development of AddressPoint, CityMail and Sweden Post will also produce a service which enables private persons who are moving to order other activities associated with the move via a web-site on the Internet. Through this service, customers will be offered services and the possibility of electronic trading with regard to needs associated with relocation, for example the purchase and sale of homes, renovation, transport, cleaning, home loans, address changes, etc. The service will allow companies and organizations will, as a group, to approach this customer group. - We know that a large part of the target group who relocate use the Internet regularly. Approximately 70-80 percent of all those who move are in the 18 - 44 age group. Approximately an equally large portion of all Internet users is found within this same age group. Such an active target group which is inclined to change is particularly interesting for a "relocation portal". In addition, we know that households spend a great deal of money when they move. Thus this customer group represents a significant purchasing power, says Bror Anders Månsson, Managing Director of CityMail. For further information please contact: Håkan Ohlsson, Deputy Managing Director CityMail, telephone +46 70-752 42 01. Linda Andersson, Public Relations Officer Sweden Post, telephone +46 8-781 17 39, +46 70-981 01 95. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/16/20000316BIT00080/bit0002.pdf http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/16/20000316BIT00080/bit0001.doc