Acquisition

6th November 2006 Acquisition of Service Graphics Limited The Board of St Ives plc ("St Ives") is pleased to announce that St Ives has acquired the whole of the issued share capital of Service Graphics Limited ("Service Graphics" or "the Company") for an initial consideration of £18 million. Established in 1961 Service Graphics is the UK's market leading independent large format graphics producer. It provides a wide range of large format digital print services and offers a fully comprehensive consultancy, manufacturing and installation service to the exhibition, retail, creative, live event and leisure sectors. Particular areas of expertise include the provision of all kinds of display products, modular and custom designed exhibition stands, full service retail solutions and giant media production. Service Graphic's current clients include: RBS, Berkeley Homes, BAA and Boots. The Company has some 400 employees located in offices and production facilities in London, Bristol, Edenbridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hayes (Middlesex), Nottingham, Salisbury, Skelmersdale and Wales giving it extensive UK geographic coverage. Following the acquisition it will continue to be managed by the existing management team as part of the Commercial Products Segment of St Ives under the leadership of Simon Ward. The acquisition gives both Service Graphics and St Ives the opportunity to cross sell a wider product offering to a broader customer base. There is minimal product or customer overlap and the technical capabilities and product offerings of the two businesses are complementary. In the financial year ended 31st December 2005, Service Graphics generated profit before interest, amortisation of goodwill and exceptional items of £ 1,768,210 on turnover of £36,075,061. At the date of acquisition, assets are expected to be approximately £9 million and it is being acquired on a debt free basis. The consideration for the acquisition consists of an initial £18 million, payable in cash on completion, provided that the profit before interest after excluding certain non recurring expenses for the year ending 31st December 2006 exceeds £2.67 million. Additional consideration will be paid to certain director shareholders if profit (as defined above) exceeds £2.97 million for each of the years ending 31st December 2007 and 2008. The cash consideration will be financed out of St Ives' available bank facilities. Commenting on the announcement, Simon Ward the Chief Executive of Direct and Point of Sale activities at St Ives said: "Service Graphics is focused on the delivery of exceptional service and represents a real catch in today's digital market place. The acquisition significantly extends our digital capabilities and reinforces our strategy of developing further specialist print related services, increasingly through digital technology." Announcing the acquisition, Brian Edwards, Managing Director of St Ives, said: "This acquisition represents a further investment in our digital capabilities. Digital technology is at the forefront of our future strategy and we now offer the widest range of digital format printing and related services in the UK." For further information contact: St Ives plc Brian Edwards, Managing Director 020 7928 8844 Smithfield John Antcliffe 020 7360 4900 Rupert Trefgarne

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