De Post-La Poste intends to acquire shareholding of Belgacom in Certipost

Brussels, 21 February 2008
De Post-La Poste and Belgacom have concluded an agreement whereby De Post-La Poste intends to acquire the 50 percent shareholding of Belgacom in Certipost, thus acquiring 100% ownership of Certipost.

Certipost, set up by De Post-La Poste and Belgacom in 2002, is a leading player in Belgium in providing certified electronic communication among companies and from companies to consumers for all types of electronic documents such as invoices. Certipost is also the supplier of the digital certificates for the electronic ID card in Belgium. The number of customers, both nationally and internationally, using Certipost services has increased by factor 20 in 24 months of time. Today Certipost has around 400 000 residential customers,while the number of companies that are Certipost customers rose from 11 500 to 30 000. Certipost solutions are being used by customers in more than 40 countries.

The acquisition of Certipost would allow De Post-La Poste to deliver an integrated suit of electronic document management services combined with its current complementary services such as printing, scanning and preparation of administrative mail.

Belgacom maintains its commitment as a customer and partner of Certipost for the services that are currently delivered by Certipost to Belgacom. These include e-invoicing of Belgacom’s customers, e-supply chain for Belgacom suppliers, e-certificates and e-signing. Belgacom has also concluded a preferential sourcing agreement with Certipost for the further development of new business initiatives and projects in domains such as e-health.

The management team of Certipost, headed by Stijn Vander Plaetse, will continue to further strengthen the service delivery to current and future customers of Certipost.

De Post - La Poste is Belgium’s postal operator. Its main activities are grouped in two business units: Mail and Retail. Mail handles 3.7 billion mail items per year. Every day 12,000 mail carriers visit 4.5 million households and put mail in some 6 million post boxes. Retail offers a broad range of services to customers through its network of 1,300 post offices and postal outlets (PostPunten/Points Poste). De Post - La Poste continuously meets the evolving needs of its customers. Its other business units and its subsidiaries offer customers innovative solutions in mail handling and delivery. The Belgian State holds 50% plus 1 share of the capital of De Post-La Poste. The consortium Post Danmark - CVC holds the remaining shares.
www.post.be

The Belgacom Group [Euronext: BELG] is the benchmark Belgian provider in the field of integrated telecommunications services. Backed by its experience as the country’s national operator and its capacity to innovate, the Belgacom Group, through the strong brands of its subsidiaries (Belgacom, Proximus and Telindus), provides a full range of offers, solutions and expertise in the areas of fixed and mobile networks. The Belgacom Group proposes a complete quadruple-play solution comprising fixed and mobile telephony, the Internet and television. It is committed to meeting the demands of its business and residential customers, and innovates to anticipate their future needs, drawing from the latest technological developments. For the fiscal year ending 31 December 2006, the Group posted a total revenue of €6.1 billion and a net operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of €2.15 billion.
More info : www.belgacom.com

Press contacts :
Belgacom
Haroun Fenaux: + 32 2 202 48 67 or + 32 476 60 03 33
Jan Margot: + 32 2 202 85 01 or + 32 475 58 50 37

De Post-La Poste
Piet Van Speybroeck: +32 477 68 47 12