Investments

Viking Internet PLC
20 June 2000


News Item
VIKING INTERNET ACQUIRES STAKES IN BOOKVISIT AND CHING CHONG 

High technology investment vehicle, Viking Internet PLC, which raised £2.0
million in an AIM float last month, has invested £82,000 (1.14 million Swedish
Kronor) in BookVisit AB, a start-up e-business specialising in real-time
booking solutions for the hotel and travel sectors. It has also taken a
£29,000 (400,000 Swedish Kronor) stake in ChingChong, an e-commerce portal
with a focus on business-to-business (B2B) links between Chinese manufacturers
and European companies. 

These bring Viking Internet's investments to seven since its formation
earlier this year. More investments are under active consideration.

BookVisit combines industry knowledge and digital engineering to make the
distribution and marketing of hotel and travel services more effective in
terms of both cost and quality. BookVisit's 'Connect' system, a platform which
is already being tested with contracted clients such as Best Western Hotels
and booking generator NetBook AB, will improve a fragmented and inefficient
market by helping to fill hotels which today only reach an average 55 per cent
occupancy. Simultaneously, BookVisit's system will facilitate hotels' back
office administration and dramatically reduce direct costs for all parties.
The agreement between BookVisit and NetBook allows BookVisit to reach the
'destination' and 'corporate direct' markets, which are substantial.

Other significant partnership agreements are in place, including an
interface between BookVisit's system and management systems supplier Optims of
France, which has some 3,000 hotel clients, including several of the world's
leading hotel chains. Next month, BookVisit's system will go live in
Scandinavia, which is the test and reference market before its international
expansion into France, the UK, and Germany. The company is projecting positive
net income in 2001, based on a conservative level of 2.2 million hotel
reservations in the year with a SKr 24-30 (£1.50 to £2) charge per
reservation.

Viking Internet's stake represents 5.7 per cent of BookVisit's recently
completed financing of around £1.4 million (20 m SKr), which is to be used for
its next phase of development.

ChingChong will establish a virtual marketplace in which European companies
can meet and interact with Chinese manufacturers, who are producers of a
tremendous range of goods at extremely low prices. The company has established
offices in Stockholm and Shanghai, through which it will launch in the English
and Swedish markets, targeting smaller and mid-sized companies.   

Viking Internet's Executive Chairman, Erik Wachtmeister, said in Stockholm
today 'We are in a buyer's market right now, which allows us to get into
exciting projects at low valuations, sharply increasing the value of our
portfolio with every investment. ChingChong's founders have unusually good
contacts in China, a vital element of such a venture, which should make this
project a success. BookVisit has an experienced management team that is
extremely well-connected in the hotel and travel sectors.'


(Viking Internet's website is at www.vikinginternet.com.  BookVisit's website
is at www.bookvisit.com. )

Contacts:
Erik Wachtmeister            Viking Internet        Tel: [phone]
Erin L. Harrell (director)   Viking Internet (in Stockholm) Tel: [phone]
Christopher Tanous           Viking Internet          Tel: [phone]
James Bendall              Fleet Financial Communications Tel: [phone]