Ad-hoc | 11 August 2000 09:45

Ad hoc-Service: Drillisch AG Englisch

Ad-hoc announcement sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. —————————————————————————— AD HOC ANNOUNCEMENT 11 August 2000 Drillisch AG: EBITDA Increased to DM 20.8 Million as of 30 June 2000! Even Greater Growth, Fixed-Net Segment Sold, New Alignment Completed In the first six months of 2000 the Drillisch Group increased sales revenues from DM 116.6 million to DM 181.5 million, its EBITDA from DM 9.0 to DM 20.8 million and its profit from ordinary activities (adjusted for DM 2.0 million in goodwill amortization) from DM 5.9 to DM 15.2 million. When taking into account the sale of its fixed-network segment, sales revenues climbed from DM 116.1 to DM 167.5 million, the EBITDA from DM 11.5 to DM 21.5 million and the profit from ordinary activity (adjusted for DM 2.0 million in goodwill amortization) from DM 8.9 to DM 18.1 million. The Drillisch Group recognized the enormous growth potential of the wireless communications market and wireless-related Internet services early on in the game and aligned itself accordingly. The group was newly aligned following the sale of its fixed-network segment to the Finnish network operator Elisa Communications. In the future the Drillisch Group will occupy the strategic wireless telephone and IT/Internet business fields. The sale of the fixed-net segment has provided the group additional capital for investments in the wireless and IT/Internet fields. All of the groups companies classified in the IT/Internet field are to be strategically consolidated. This will occur in light of the fact that Drillisch continues to enjoy a solid presence among major clients for which it wants to provide interesting wireless/Internet solutions. It is through Open-Net Oy that Drillisch is today represented on the market for mobile Internet solutions. Open-Net Oy has been providing content for IOBox Oy since this year. The assessments of the value of business in this market segment were impressively confirmed by the 230-million-euro transaction of IOBox Oy to terra Mobile, a subsidiary of Telefonica. Besides the Drillisch wireless communications customers, the groups goal is use its new mobile Internet content products to address all the markets other wireless customers and extend the relevant market for Drillisch AG and its product portfolio beyond Germany and into other European countries. With its 125,000 subscribers in this first half-year, the Drillisch Group again posted its strongest sales performance in the corporations history within the wireless phone segment. This was achieved exclusively through organic growth. The number of subscribers climbed to a total of ca. 375,000 as of 30 June 2000. It was mostly due to the successful positioning of the Drillisch sales organization on the market that the group was able to continue its above-averge growth. In the wireless communications segment (not including wholesaling of cellular equipment), sales in the first six months of 2000 rose 47.1 percent to DM 134.3 million. This increase can be attributed to growth and the large subscriber base. Sales in wholesaling of end-user wireless terminal equipment increased from DM 16.4 to DM 27.6 million. This strong rise is attributable to the positive positioning of sales on the market. Revenues of DM 14.1 million were posted in the fixed-net segment. In the prior year period sales stood at DM 0.5 million. This increase is due primarily to having initiated open call-by-call service on 1 July 1999. Sales in the IT segment declined to DM 5.6 million from DM 8.4 million. It should be kept in mind that new sales from mobile Internet projects will only have an impact starting in the second half of the year. This correction to sales revenue is a result of the disposal of sites, whose activities were concentrated on non-group-related product fields, as a means to make realignments leading up to newly positioning the group. Drillisch is not bidding for one of the UMTS licenses in Germany. Instead Drillisch will create its own mobile content platforms to spark major interest of UMTS network operators in its mobile Internet products. Additionally, there will be the opportunity for the Drillisch Group to conclude cooperation agreements with these UMTS operators. According to various market studies, Content+Solution will form up to 70% of the income from UMTS subscriber sales. Drillisch AG, as a network-operator-independent mobile content provider, wants to hold a disproportionately large share in this income potential. For additional information please contact: Drillisch AG Investor Relations Charlotte C. Heidrich, Graduate Economist Horbeller Straße 31, D-50858 Köln Tel.: 02234 / 92 04-0, Fax: -158 E-mail: presse@drillisch.de Internet: http://www.drillisch.de 1 End of Message