£35m Raised Via Share Placing

NewMedia SPARK PLC 25 November 1999 NewMedia SPARK raises £35 million via share placing NewMedia SPARK plc ('SPARK') is pleased to announce a successful placing of 60 million new ordinary shares with institutional and other investors at a price of 60p per share. Peel Hunt is broker to the issue. The net proceeds of the placing, which has been over-subscribed, amount to approximately £35.4 million and will enable SPARK to expand substantially the scale of its activities in investing in early stage Internet companies. The new ordinary share will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing ordinary shares of SPARK. Application has been made for admission of the new ordinary to trading on AIM. Trading in the new ordinary shares is expected to commence on Wednesday 1 December 1999. Commenting on the placing Michael Whitaker, CEO of SPARK, stated: 'We are pleased by the success of this placing, which has primarily gone to a range of leading institutional investors. The funds raised will enable a substantial increase in the scale of our activities; consistent with our goal of building the leading quoted European Internet Investment Company. We are at present receiving and reviewing a very significant number of investment opportunities, many of which are of a high quality. Our goal is to build a portfolio of investments in early stage companies operating in key areas of the Internet. The introduction of broadband Internet access technologies over the next 12-24 months will open up substantial new markets for a wide range of Internet businesses in areas as diverse as 'rich' content providers, B2C and B2B transactional platforms, inter-active entertainment, and web infrastructure software. We believe that we have one of the largest and most credible teams in Europe investing in this area, and we intend to build our team significantly in the months ahead. We also intend to build upon our already wide- ranging network of contacts and co-operative partners amongst other Internet venture capital firms, financial institutions and larger Internet industry companies. The Internet is already beginning to transform many industries, and we believe that the social and economic changes that will be brought by the development of the Internet over the next few years will be profound, and unprecedented. We are excited by the prospect of playing a leading part in these developments.' ____________________________________________________________ For further information please contact: NewMedia SPARK 0171 887 4510 Michael Whitaker 0468-555944 Buchannan Communications Tim Anderson/Lisa Baderoon 0171-466-5000 Peel Hunt & Company David Davies 0171-418-8900
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