ACR Capital Launches Euro 100 million Slottsbacken Fund For Investments In Nordic High-Growth IT Companies

ACR Capital Launches Euro 100 million Slottsbacken Fund For Investments In Nordic High-Growth IT Companies st [Stockholm, Sweden, February 1 , 2001.] Building on the successful pan- Nordic investment strategy of its first IT investment fund, leading Scan- dinavian venture capital company ACR Capital is launching its second Slottsbacken fund for investments in Nordic high-tech growth companies. Slottsbacken Venture Capital Fund II (SVC Fund II) has closed after at- tracting approximately Euro 100 million from a number of large internatio- nal investors, and the fund has already made two promising investments. SVC Fund II will focus on investments in Nordic high-growth IT companies within the telecom, datacom and e-media industries which supply unique products to the international markets. As with ACR Capitals successful first Slottsbacken fund, SVC Fund II will have an explicit pan-Nordic strategy of finding the most promising growth companies in the Nordic re- gion and helping develop and internationalise them. SVC Fund II has attracted approximately Euro 100 million from several lar- ge international investors, including AP Sixth Fund (Sweden), AMF Insuran- ce (Sweden), SPP (Sweden), Telia Pension Fund (Sweden), Telia AB (Sweden), Sampension (Denmark), Merita Life Assurance (Finland), Industrial Invest- ment (Finland) and Local Goverment Pension Institution (Finland). The fund will be operational for 8 years. Two investments have already been made by SVC Fund II, in software company European Game & Entertainment Technology OY of Finland, and in Zapera A/S of Denmark. European Game & Entertainment Technology is a global provider of Internet and wireless gaming technology which specializes in develo- ping, licensing and hosting personalized interactive gaming solutions for government-licensed gaming operators in regulated jurisdictions world- wide. Zapera is the largest market research and analysis institute in Scandinavia which solely uses the Internet for its data collection. "We are very pleased to have been able to attract such large investors for our second fund, despite the slump in both the IT market and the venture capital market. It is our firm belief that our management skills and expe- rience, our unique Nordic focus and our success with our first fund form a sound foundation for an equally successful second fund", said Ulf Svens- son, CEO, ACR Capital. About ACR Capital: Slottsbacken funds managed by ACR Capital have been investing in growth companies in the telecom, datacom and e-media industries throughout the Nordic region since 1996. Slottsbacken Fund I's capital totals EUR 35 mil- lion with Telia AB and AP Sixth Fund as investors. Slottsbacken Fund II's total capital amounts to around EUR 100 million. A dozen people are invol- ved in the fund's management. ACR was founded in 1995 and today has offi- ces in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki. Investments through Slottsbacken Fund I have been successful and the port- folio companies have in many cases grown from small "embryo" businesses into large, market-leading IT companies on the brink of IPOs or other ex- its. Slottsbacken Fund I includes companies such as Unique Development Studios, the Nordic region's leading computer games developer, fast-growing softwa- re company Marratech which produces software for e-meetings, SuperForm, a leading software company within products for electronic and intelligent forms, and Digiscope, a leading providor of solutions for the new digital media. Recent investments also include Secode, an Internet security compa- ny, Finansium, European leading online/wireless financial information sy- stem, and Reddo Networks, developers of the next generation of carrier grade IP multiservice equipment and products. Example of successful exits are the data security company, Protect Data, which was listed on the Stockholm stock exchange in 1998 and Danish broad- band company Cocom which was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc.in 1999. Combi- ned IRR all exits so far approx. 250 %. For further information, please contact: Ulf Svensson, CEO ACR Capital AB Tel: +46 8 456 88 80 Fax: +46 8 456 88 98 E-mail: ulf.svensson@acr.se http://www.slottsbacken.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/2001/02/01/20010201BIT00040/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/02/01/20010201BIT00040/bit0002.pdf