Ratos made its original investment in Q-Labs in 2000 with a total of SEK 190m. Since then Q-Labs has streamlined its operations in order to adapt to the decreased demand of advanced IT-consultancy services. The company's development in the last year has been positive. The book value of Ratos's Q-Labs holding has previously been written down and amounted to SEK 39m at end of March 2004.

Q-Labs currently has some 100 employees in Sweden, France, Germany and the USA. 2003 sales amounted to SEK 142m.

For additional information, please contact:

Arne Karlsson, CEO, Ratos, +46 8 700 17 00

Anna-Karin Celsing, Head of Corporate Communications, Ratos, +46 70 399 62 39

Financial calendar from Ratos:

Interim Report January-June 2004            25 August 2004

Interim Report January-September 2004            12 November 2004

The press release can be downloaded from the following link: