Sales up 181 percent in first nine months/Restructuring program showing results

The information logistics company increased its sales in the third quarter (October to December) of fiscal year 2001/2002 and significantly reduced its operating loss for the quarter. Quarterly sales rose 42 percent since the prior quarter reaching 14.9 million euro. For the first nine months, sales grew 181 percent since the same period in the previous year to a total of 37.5 million euro. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and before special expenses amounted to minus 0.8 million euro (prior quarter: minus 2.1 million euro). The third quarter earnings per share amounted to minus 0.37 euro. For the nine-month period, the earnings per share amounted to minus 1.47 euro.

EBITDA before special expenses was minus 7.9 million euro in the first nine months (prior year period: minus 1.8 million euro). For the first nine months of the year, EBIT before exceptional charges amounted to minus 17.9 million euro after depreciation and amortization of 10.0 million euro (including 8.0 million euro for goodwill amortization). Exceptional charges related to the reversal of an acquisition and the sale of equity investments in the amount of 3.3 million euro resulted in an EBIT of minus 21.2 million euro. General and administrative expenses were 2.4 million euro in the third quarter. This means the percentage of these costs in sales fell from 25 percent in the prior quarter to only 16 percent. Shareholders equity as of 12/31/2001 was 80.2 million euro. With an equity ratio of 73%, the Group continues to enjoy a strong capital base. Liquid assets and short-term investments were still at a high level at 25.3 million euro.

The figures presented for the third quarter reflect the first positive results of Focus, the restructuring program introduced in June 2001. With this program, the caatoosee Group introduced a strict concentration on software products and solutions relating to information logistics and stepped up its efforts to restructure the company. Today, the caatoosee Group primarily consists of , caatoosee Schweiz ag, and PT Sigma Cipta Caraka.

In his outlook for the future development of business, CEO Guido Alt expressed confidence: We have just been through a restructuring that entailed major changes and special expenditures. We are now beginning to see the first fruits of our efforts. Our sales have grown and at the same time we have been able to reduce our operating loss for the quarter. Our job now is to persistently continue on this path.

Based in Leonberg, near Stuttgart, Germany, (Neuer Markt: Sec. Id. No. ) develops software products and solutions for information logistics. Information logistics is a fast and cost-effective method of identifying relationships between structured and unstructured data from various systems. The main objective is to provide specified information that is tailored to users' individual requirements. Flexible mathematical degrees of similarity allow a high degree of error tolerance and make it possible to automatically match the data input with the associated document.

caatoosee has 772 employees (as of December 31, 2001) in Europe and Asia. Revenues for the first nine months of the fiscal year (April to December 2001) amounted to 35.7 million euros. The Executive Board consists of Guido Alt (Chairman), Jan Tenné, and Martin Seith. The members of the Supervisory Board are Dr. Lothar Späth (Chairman, Jenoptik AG), Hans-Ulrich Dörr (Vice Chairman, self-employed), Michael Grabner (Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH), Edmund Hug (IBM Deutschland GmbH), Dr. Rüdiger Grube (DaimlerChrysler AG), and Dieter Matheis (formerly a member of SAP AG's management).