Ixonos Plc Stock Exchange Release 6 March 2007 Ixonos Plc has founded a subsidiary in Slovakia and opened an office for the new company in Kosice. The Slovakia-based subsidiary will produce testing services and software development and maintenance services for customer projects run by the Group's two business units and for the company's internal software development. With the establishment of a new office, the group aims at securing the availability of skilled software development and testing personnel to meet the needs of strong expansion and ever-larger individual customer projects. At the same time the idea is to boost the volume of lower-price services in the Group's overall service offering. The first customer projects run by the Group's Telecommunications Unit will be launched in Kosice during March. "For the moment we're transferring or preparing the transfer of several sub projects that are part of extensive ventures to Kosice," says Kari Liuska, director of the Telecommunications Unit of Ixonos Plc. "We started to recruit in advance in Kosice at the end of 2006, and our first local employees have already started their work at the office. At the same time a few of our experienced Finland-based software designers have been transferred to Kosice. This way we can smoothly embed the company way of doing things and our corporate culture into the local operations," Liuska continues. In future, the Kosice office will also produce services for the customers of the Group's Systems Services Unit and for software projects related to the company's internal service development. The Kosice office is estimated to have dozens of employees by the end of 2007. Ixonos aims at developing Kosice into one of the Group's largest offices, employing over one hundred people in the next few years. "We also aim at increasing our personnel in Finland and in our Tallinn-based subsidiary which specializes in testing smartphones, but since resources are more readily available in Slovakia, our office in Kosice will grow faster than our other offices," says Kari Happonen, CEO and President of Ixonos. "The cost level in Kosice means that we can carry out extensive projects and produce life cycle solutions for software in a more economical way without giving up those benefits we achieve by operating close to our customers in Finland or at the customers' overseas offices," Happonen continues. Kosice, which is located in Eastern Slovakia, was chosen as the location of the Group's new office based on a survey covering several Eastern European countries regarding their technical and mathematical skills, the level of their educational institutes, infrastructure, traffic connections, as well as the level of costs. With approximately 245,000 residents, Kosice is the second biggest city in Slovakia. Kosice has both a technical university and a university. Slovakia became a member of the European Union in 2004. Ixonos is an information and communications technology service company producing flexible software development, maintenance and project management solutions that support its customers' competitiveness and risk management. Ixonos' clientele comprises leading mobile and smartphone manufacturers, mobile network suppliers and telecom carriers operating on the international markets, as well as Finnish companies operating in, for example, the finance sector. Ixonos has offices in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Kemi, Oulu, Rovaniemi, Salo and Tampere. In addition, the company's subsidiary has offices in Haapajärvi and Tallinn, Estonia. The Group's turnover in 2006 was EUR 39.2 million, and operating profit was EUR 3.9 million. The Group has a personnel of over 600. Distribution: Helsinki Stock Exchange Main media Additional information: Ixonos Plc President and CEO, Kari Happonen phone +358 424 2231, mobile +358 400 700 761, [email protected]