Placing and Acquisition

i-documentsystems Group PLC 8 May 2002 8 May 2002 i-documentsystems group plc Placing of New and Existing Ordinary shares and Acquisition of the trade and assets of The Planning Exchange i-documentsystems group plc (the 'Group'), a leading specialist provider of e-government solutions to local authorities, is pleased to announce that Teather & Greenwood Limited, as agent for the Group, has placed a total of 11,986,668 new ordinary 1p shares on behalf of the Group and 6,779,999 existing ordinary shares on behalf of Lombard Risk Management Plc, with new and existing institutional investors, at a price of 12 pence per share. Placing of New Ordinary Shares (the 'Placing') The Placing represents 11,986,668 new ordinary shares ('New Ordinary Shares') to raise £1,438,400, before expenses of the issue, at a price of 12 pence per share. The proceeds will be used towards the acquisition of the business and assets of The Planning Exchange as announced on 25 March 2002 and detailed below as well as to augment the Group's existing working capital. The New Ordinary Shares rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares of the Group and represent 8.54 per cent of the enlarged issued share capital of the Group. Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to the Alternative Investment Market ('AIM') of the London Stock Exchange plc. It is expected that dealings in the New Ordinary Shares will commence on Friday 10 May 2002. Placing of Existing Ordinary Shares (the 'Vendor Placing') The Vendor Placing represented 6,779,999 existing ordinary shares ('Existing Ordinary Shares') to raise £813,600 before expenses on behalf of the vendor, Lombard Risk Management, (the 'Vendor') and represents 4.83 per cent of the enlarged issued share capital of the Group. The Vendor Placing was also carried out at a price of 12 pence per share. The Vendor retains a total of 26,989,601 ordinary shares, representing 19.23 per cent of the enlarged issued share capital of the Group. Acquisition of The Planning Exchange The Group announced on 25 March 2002, that it had entered into heads of agreement for its 100% owned subsidiary, i-dox Information Services Ltd, to purchase the business and assets of The Planning Exchange for a consideration together with further investment of circa £1 million. The acquisition of the business and assets of The Planning Exchange was completed on 7 May 2002. The Planning Exchange provides content and information services to the planning and wider community on aspects of economic, environmental and physical regeneration and development in the UK to a client base of 316 subscribers, of which approximately a quarter are local authorities. Other clients include government departments, consulting firms, housing organisations and research bodies. The consideration for the acquisition, paid in cash, was £442,725. The audited accounts of The Planning Exchange for the year to 31 March 2001 reported an income surplus of £4,462 based on net assets of £43,119 and turnover of £1,411,198 using The Planning Exchange's accounting policies. Immediately after the acquisition of The Planning Exchange and after the admission of the new shares the Group will have cash reserves net of expenses of circa £2,800,000. The Planning Exchange is a registered charity and will post acquisition change its name to The Planning Exchange Foundation and cease trading. The existing staff of The Planning Exchange shall continue to be employed by the i-dox Information Services Ltd and Tony Burton, Managing Director of The Planning Exchange shall become a Director of i-dox Information Services Ltd. Commenting on the Placing Andrew Fraser, Chief Executive of i-documentsystems group plc, said: 'I am delighted to have completed the acquisition of the business and assets of The Planning Exchange. The combination of the i-dox UKPlanning service and the Planning Exchange Information Unit will allow the Group to build the premier Business Process Management solution for the planning and regeneration industry. This will offer significant opportunities to leverage from both businesses existing customers and build new revenue streams. I am also pleased that we have been able to attract new institutional investors as well as the continued support of our existing shareholders.' -Ends- For further information please contact: John Wisbey, Chairman, i-documentsystems group plc T 020 7353 5330 Andrew Fraser, CEO, i-documentsystems group plc T: 020 7427 0660 Tim Bowen, CFO, i-documentsystems group plc T: 020 7427 0660 Richard Thompson/Martin Lampshire/Michael Seabrook T: 020 7426 9000 Teather & Greenwood Limited Nadja Vetter/Richard Fallowfield, Cardew & Co. T: 020 7930 0777 Alasdair Robinson, Noble & Company Limited T: 0131 225 9677 Notes to editors: i-documentsystems group plc is a fast-growing software company which specialises in the development of products for document, content and information management. The Group's principal product is Image-Gen, a sophisticated web-based software package which allows complex paper-based processes to be automated. The Image-Gen Java-based applications are ideally suited to meet e-Government requirements. This market presents significant opportunities, as there are 468 local authorities in the UK, all of which are expected to comply with the Prime Minister's directive to ensure that the bulk of Local Government services are available electronically by 2005. The Group has a leading position in putting the Local Government Planning process online and there has been growing interest in capabilities from other local authority departments. The Group's recently opened Glasgow office, together with increased staffing, has enabled the company to pursue some interesting new business opportunities and anticipates growth in delivering other services electronically The Group also developed UKPlanning.com, an ASP (Application Service Provider) model for local authorities to store and index planning documents in order to make them available for public inspection on the internet. Rather than each council separately developing the expertise, i-documentsystems would provide this service on an outsourced basis using its existing Image-Gen technology. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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