CENIT AG

M&A Activity • Jul 1, 2010

News Details

Ad-hoc | 1 July 2010 16:37

CENIT invests in the future – Acquisition of business intelligence and performance management consultancy conunit

CENIT AG / Mergers & Acquisitions/Acquisition

01.07.2010 16:37

Dissemination of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG, transmitted by
DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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CENIT invests in the future - Acquisition of business intelligence and
performance management consultancy conunit

Acquisition agreement signed today

Stuttgart, 1 July 2010 - The Managing Board of CENIT AG concluded an
acquisition agreement with conunit GmbH today, completing a previously
announced company acquisition. CENIT has been successfully active on the
market for enterprise information management (EIM) for years and has become
an important strategic partner for its customers and IBM. Now CENIT AG is
expanding its technical and software expertise by acquiring the management
and technology consultancy conunit and adding the future-oriented segment
'Business Intelligence and Analytics' to its service portfolio.

'For us it was important to make a meaningful addition to our long-standing
EIM business segment and thereby take on a topic that will become ever more
important in the future. The market for business intelligence technologies
and the associated consulting services is growing by leaps and bounds. For
example, analysts at Datamonitor estimate that by 2012, income generation
from BI licenses alone will rise to 7.9 bn EUR worldwide. With this
acquisition, we will not only be able to secure additional consulting
business, but also increase the share of software and maintenance proceeds
in CENIT's earnings', explains CENIT CEO Kurt Bengel. CFO and Managing
Board Spokesman Christian Pusch adds that 'Another important aspect for us
was that the two Managing Partners Roman Schäfer and Jörg Uwer, who
established the company six years ago, will continue to direct and further
expand conunit's business. In terms of enterprise management and
balance-sheet structure, conunit is an excellent match for us. Also, the
enterprise is well established in the market and there is great demand for
the high-level industry expertise of its employees.'

In 2009, conunit GmbH with its 23 employees posted sales of approx. 3.3 m
EUR and EBIT of 0.34 m EUR. conunit is a management and technology
consulting firm based in Neu-Isenburg. It supports its customers in overall
enterprise control and the management of opportunities and risks, business
processes, projects and data. Well-founded business management
expertise,deep technical know-how and extensive industry knowledge form the
foundations of the management consultancy. conunit's portfolio includes
business intelligence and performance management solutions based on
products by leading technology providers such as IBM Cognos, as well as
high-value management consulting services. In all its activities, conunit
pursues two goals: One, to sustainably optimize the control systems,
processes and instruments deployed by its customers. Two, to provide
customers with the up-to-date, transparent information on critical business
processes needed to be able to make secure, well-founded decisions to
increase enterprise performance. conunit Managing Partner Roman Schäfer
emphasizes that 'For years, conunit has been one of the most successful
partners of IBM Cognos in Europe.'

Conunit Managing Partner Jörg Uwer adds: 'During the six years since its
foundation, conunit has managed to acquire a broad, highly reputable
customer base, thanks to the extensive technical competence of our staff
and our service portfolio's stringent focus on the information and
decision-making needs of our clients. Among these clients are major,
internationally active corporations, but also medium-sized domestic
enterprises. They all rely on our high management and technology
consulting expertise, and acknowledge the value of our work by regularly
coming back to us for assistance.'

Working out of two locations in Frankfurt/Main and Düsseldorf, conunit
serves customers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxemburg.

CENIT is currently active in 8 German cities and employs more than 710
staff worldwide. The integration of conunit GmbH into CENIT AG creates one
of the most important software and consulting enterprises in Germany for
IBM's enterprise information management product family. In 2007, IBM
acquired Cognos, the market leader for business intelligence software, for
approx. 5 bn US$.

About CENIT:

Since 1988, the company has been active as a specialist for product
lifecycle management, enterprise information management solutions and
application management services. CENIT is listed on the Prime Standard of
Deutsche Börse and currently employs about 700 staff. Among others, CENIT
serves clients such as Allianz, W&W, Daimler, EADS Airbus, VR kreditwerk,
BWB and Kuka, as well as numerous medium-sized businesses particularly from
the automotive industry and the mechanical engineering sector, e.g.
Jungheinrich, Flow, Viessmann or Georg Fischer.
http://www.cenit.de

Please send queries to:
CENIT AG
Fabian Rau
Industriestrasse 52-54
D-70565 Stuttgart
Tel.:+497117825-3185
Fax:+49711782544-4185
Email: f.rau@cenit.de

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Information and Explaination of the Issuer to this News:

Additional Information:

This press/ad hoc report may contain future-oriented statements regarding
the business, financial and earnings situation of as well as profit
projections for CENIT. Such future-oriented statements are characterized by
terms or statements such as 'the company may' or 'the company will',
'expects', 'assumes ', 'is considering', 'intends to', 'plans', 'believes',
'will continue to' and/or 'estimates', as well as similar terms and
statements. Such statements contain no guarantee that the projections will
in fact be achieved. Rather, such statements involve risks, imponderables
and assumptions that are difficult to predict and, in addition, are based
on assumptions as to future events which may prove to be incorrect. For
this reason, actual events may diverge significantly from the assumptions
contained in the above statement. In a future-oriented statement by which
CENIT expresses expectations or assumptions with regard to future events,
these expectations or assumptions are made in good faith, and it shall be
assumed that they are made upon an appropriate basis; however, it cannot be
guaranteed that the said statements, expectations or assumptions shall
indeed occur, be attained or fulfilled. The actual operative result may
diverge significantly from such future-oriented statements and is subject
to certain risks. In this regard, please refer to the Annual Report of
CENIT AG.

01.07.2010 Ad hoc announcement, Financial News and Media Release distributed by DGAP.
Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de

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Language: English
Company: CENIT AG
Industriestraße 52 - 54
70565 Stuttgart
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)711 78 25 - 30
Fax: +49 (0)711 78 25 - 4000
E-mail: aktie@cenit.de
Internet: www.cenit.de
ISIN: DE0005407100
WKN: 540710
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Stuttgart;
Freiverkehr in Berlin, München, Düsseldorf, Hamburg

End of News DGAP News-Service

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