Startel Oy acquires 25,5 % of Ecovision AB

Startel Oy acquires 25,5 % of Ecovision AB Startel Oy has today signed an agreement under which it will acquire a holding in Swedish-based Ecovision AB. Startel's holding in Ecovision AB represents 25.5 % of the shares and 30.5 % of the votes. The deal also gives Startel an option to subsequently increase its stake to 33.4 % of the shares and votes in the company. Startel Oy publishes Taloussanomat, a Finnish financial daily, Verkko- Taloussanomat, a financial daily on the web, and runs a news agency. Ninety per cent of Startel Oy is held by Sanoma Corporation, which is a part of the Sanoma -WSOY Oyj. The remaining 10 % of Startel is owned by TS-Yhtymä Oy which publishes Turun Sanomat. Sanoma-WSOY Oyj is the largest listed media company in the Nordic Countries. Its operations include most areas of modern communication. Through its subsidiaries the group publishes magazines, books and newspapers and it engages in television and other electronic media. There are all in all over 12,000 people working for the new group. In 1998 the net sales of the Sanoma WSOY companies totalled FIM 7.443 billion and the operating profit was FIM 424 million. According to the figures of 1998 the equity ratio in total is 70 percent and the shareholders' equity FIM 4.3 billion Ecovision AB is a Swedish systems and software producer for processing and distributing of economic news and financial data in real-time. Ecovision has also developed an internet-technology based service for news and financial information, which can be delivered via corporate intranets. It also has a news agency, Nyhetsbyrån Ticker AB, for financial news. Ecovision AB had net sales of SEK 28.4 million in 1998 with a 27% growth to 1997 and has achieved a significant sales growth also in the first quarter of 1999. Ecovision has a significant customer base in the financial sector in Sweden and Norway with approximately 1100 users for its workstation products. Ecovision employs 25 people. The sellers were Ecovision AB's President Paul Östling and Board Chairman Jan- Olof Dahlen. The co-operation between Startel Oy and Ecovision both as owners and as operating partners offers numerous possibilities for a further development of the two companies, for instance in the fields of software development, communications, branding and customer contacts. For further details, please contact Startel Oy's President Antti-Pekka Pietilä, tel. +358 9 122 4100 or Ecovision AB's President Paul Östling, tel +46 31 68 34 50. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/05/26/19990526BIT00200/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/05/26/19990526BIT00200/bit0002.pdf