STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 28, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Ecovision AB has signed an agreement under which it acquires a holding in the Dutch ShareCompany B.V. Ecovision's holding in ShareCompany represents 35.6 % of the capital and the votes.
In November last year it was announced that ShareCompany becomes a sales agent for Ecovision's products in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Ecovision's acquisition of the holding in ShareCompany is a further step in Ecovision's strategy for international expansion.
ShareCompany is an established provider of financial real-time information in the Netherlands. The company has approximately 1.000 users of the real-time system ActivePlus in the Dutch market. ShareCompany also exploits several financial websites including the well known www.debeurs.nl. With more than 350.000 unique monthly visitors, the website ranks among the most visited sites for financial information in the Netherlands. The company has 8 employees. In 2001 ShareCompany had a turnover of about 2 million euros.
With its 35.6 % holding, Ecovision is the largest shareholder in ShareCompany. The other shareholders are the German Neuer Markt listed b.i.s. AG with 32.8 % and Wolfbos B.V. with 31.6 % of the capital in ShareCompany. Wolfbos B.V. is owned by Franz Schrandt who is the founder and managing director of ShareCompany.
ShareCompany is now in the position to market Scandinavian quotes, apart from information from the Benelux area and the German stock exchanges. This acquisition in conjunction with the existing link between b.i.s. and ShareCompany creates a pan-european co-operation to market and sell financial information.
Ecovision acquired its holding in ShareCompany by acquiring existing shares from Wolfbos B.V. and by the participation in a new share issue. The total investment for Ecovision amounts to 600.000 euros.
The capital from the new share issue will be used for further market expansion in the Benelux countries by ShareCompany.
The Ecovision Group is divided into three business areas: The Ecovision ProTrader - a complete financial real-time system, Ecovision Solutions that develops and operates web services for banks, stockbrokers and the media and the Ticker News Agency, which produces real-time news for the financial markets.
The Ecovision group has 36 employees. The sales in 2001 amounted to 6.4 million euros and the profit before taxation was 1.1 million euros.
The Ecovision share is listed at the Stockholm Stock Exchange, New Market.
ShareCompany is active in three business areas. ShareCompany is on of the leading providers of financial real-time systems within the private and professional investor community. In the segment market data services, ShareCompany offers its customers the possibility for rapid development of financial information services using technology based upon open standards. The business area web services complement ShareCompany's offering with the exploitation of www.debeurs.nl and www.bib.nl.
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