| Apax Partners acquires Mr. Alain Bernard's 46.42% stake in Prosodie (27/10/2006 18:00) On 27 October 2006, Camélia Participations, a company controlled by Apax Partners SA entered into an agreement with Mr. Alain Bernard for the acquisition of his 46,42% stake in Prosodie (at 30 September 2006), at a price of €20 per share. Prosodie is listed on Euronext Paris (Eurolist C - code ISIN FR000415203).
The closing of this transaction is contingent upon approval by the French competition authorities (DGCCRF).
Following the approval and subsequent acquisition of the block, Camélia Participations will file with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) a tender offer for all the Prosodie shares it does not own, as set forth by market regulations. This offer is expected to be filed before the end of the year.
PROSODIE is a telecommunications operator which develops and provides telecommunications services and IT solutions that allow customers, clients, partners and/or employees of public and private organizations to access and exchange information.
Prosodie's services and solutions aim at improving performance in customer relations (telephone reception, interactive voice servers, automated call centres, …), optimizing marketing strategy (design and development of mobile services, eCommerce solutions, …), providing highly secure applications (management of payment cards, electronic voting, ID authentication, …), as well as hosting and management of communications applications and infrastructure services with high value added.
Prosodie also produces and delivers information to the general public in three areas: weather forecasts through METEO CONSULT and LA CHAINE METEO (TV channel), horse racing through GENYcourses and exam results through France-examen.
With a presence in France, Spain, USA and Canada, Prosodie had 2005 IFRS consolidated revenues of €147.1 m up 6.2% over 2004 (€138.5m) and 2005 operating income of €11.5 m up to 52.3% over 2004 (€7.5m).
Eddie Misrahi, Partner at Apax Partners said: "We are delighted to partner again with Prosodie and team up with Georges Croix, Nicolas Dourassoff and André Saint-Mleux to continue growing this leading-edge company. We are familiar with Prosodie, having already participated in its 1997 buy-out from the Hersant family, then in its IPO a year later. Prosodie has demonstrated its ability to anticipate business needs and to develop value-added solutions. It has successfully addressed the challenges created by the advent of Voice-over-IP and voice recognition, as well as the management of multi-channel flows, which have strong growth potential.
The investment of Apax Partners France will be broken down as follows: 50% Apax France VII, 25% Altamir and 25% Amboise Investissement.
About Apax Partners
Apax Partners is one of the world's leading private equity investment groups. It operates across Europe, Israel, the United States and Asia, and has more than 30 years of investing experience. Funds under the advice of Apax Partners total €16 billion around the world.
Apax Partners Funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. They invest in companies across its global sectors of Tech & Telecom, Retail & Consumer, Media, Healthcare and Financial & Business Services.
Examples of investments in telecoms include: TDC, Intelsat, Tim Hellas Communications, Bezeq, Versatel, Q-Telecom and Outremer Telecom.
For further information, please contact:
Apax Partners SA
Agathe Heinrich
Marketing Director
+33 1 53 65 01 35
E-mail : agathe.heinrich@apax.fr | 
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