January 10, 2006 10:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

AXA Private Equity, Societe Centrale d'Investissements and PARTECH to Invest 16 Million Euros in B3G Telecom

AXA Private Equity, Societe Centrale d'Investissements and Partech International invest 16 million Euros and own shares in the telecommunications operator, European leader in Broadband Telephony. This fund raising operation gives B3G Telecom the means to accelerate its growth within France and Europe.

European leader in Broadband Telephony, B3G Telecom announced today it has completed a 16 million Euro fund raising operation with AXA Private Equity, chief underwriter of the operation, Societe Centrale d'Investissements (BNP Paribas Group) and Partech International. This financing will enable B3G Telecom, which made a turnover of nearly 60 million Euros in 2005, to accelerate its development in its two markets, enterprises and operators, in France and in Europe.

Forerunner in Broadband Telephony services for the enterprise market, B3G Telecom has been investing for more than three years in developing its IP Centrex platform, and in designing and deploying its private, secured and end-to-end operated IP network. "For almost 4 years, we completed the main bulk of investments in our core network on owners' equity, notably to manage end-to-end Quality of Service", said Christophe Bach, co-President of B3G Telecom. "However, we frequently resize our infrastructures to accommodate our rapid growth and we continue to invest in R&D to enrich our services offer and stay ahead technologically and functionally".

Leveraging this innovative infrastructure and its public switching network, B3G Telecom offers a range of services answering all enterprises' telecom needs. "This fund raising will enable us to accelerate the development of our Enterprises activities in France and to fully benefit from the opportunity, for an innovating operator such as B3G Telecom, that derive from the extreme concentration of that market in France," said Patrice Giami, co-president of B3G Telecom.

In order to make the most of its technological advance, and to guarantee the local operational support that is essential in supplying enterprise telephony services, B3G Telecom has chosen an exclusively indirect distribution model in the enterprise market. "In order to support our distribution partners, we had to have the means to invest in a national commercial and operational presence", added Sofiane Ammar, General Manager of B3G Telecom's Enterprises entity.

Leader in its national market, characterised by a very widespread availability of general public IP telephony having favoured demand in the enterprise market, B3G Telecom also has a strong opportunity in Europe. "We will be able to accentuate our commercial action at European level in the operators market, for which we offer white brand broadband telephony services. The French market is twelve to eighteen months ahead of numerous other large European markets and we have a really attractive offer for fixed or mobile services operators, as well as Internet players such as our client Skype", confirmed Nicolas Jeuffrain, General Manager of B3G Telecom's Operators entity.

This fund raising is one of the largest private financing operations carried out in 2005. It illustrates the strength and maturity of French venture capital, which can significantly support the development of companies that are innovative (labelized by French Agency for Innovation Oseo-Anvar) and operationally strong.

"We were convinced by B3G's technological skills in the IP telephony and IP Centrex fields. Furthermore, the operational reliability of services produced by B3G Telecom and its knowledge of the market are decisive competitive advantages in this expanding market", added Luc Lechelle (AXA Private Equity).

"The strength of the team and its head start in operational implementation of these extremely innovative technologies are the main reasons that made us carry on this operation" said Jean-Jacques Bertrand (Groupe BNP Paribas).

"The IP Centrex market, and more generally IP Telephony, is extremely promising in Europe and North America. We had already invested in the USA in this field and were looking for an investment opportunity in Europe. After a quick market study, it clearly appeared that B3G Telecom is the best positioned player in Europe", explained Jean-Marc Patouillaud (Partech International).

Consulting firm Lorentz, Deschamps & Associes advised B3G Telecom's management for this operation.

About B3G Telecom

Created in France in 2001, B3G Telecom is the leading European Broadband Telephony operator.

B3G Telecom addresses key European telecom operators and telecommunication & multimedia professionals with a turn key white labelled VoIP offer and the French enterprise market with a fully operated and secured IP Telephony and IP Centrex offer through an exclusive indirect channel distribution strategy.

An innovative Telecommunication Operator with the label of the French Agency for Innovation Oseo-Anvar, B3G Telecom is headquarted in Paris and has posted a turn-over of almost 60 ME in 2005.

Operators Activity

Already established in France, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, B3G Telecom is one of Europe's main players in the value added call termination wholesale market. B3G Telecom has amongst its customers numerous key French and European TDM and VoIP operators such as: Colt, MCI, Cegetel, Tele2, Neuf Telecom, KPN, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, AT&T, Skype, etc.

Moreover, B3G Telecom offers white label Broadband Telephony Services to telecom operators, ISPs, cable companies, regional operators and, generally speaking to telecommunication and multimedia professionals. This "wholesale" service offer is modular and supports the main IP telephony protocols; it is design to integrate with B3G Telecom customers' production equipments, and to enable them to enrich their service portfolio. It is aimed both at consumer market actors and at operators targeting the enterprise market.

B3G Telecom has amongst its customers for this offer, companies such as StellaNet, NetUltra, Territoire Sans Fil, Axione, EDP and Pacwan.

Enterprises Activity

In order to answer all of the telecom needs of enterprises, B3G Telecom has designed a comprehensive service offer exclusively distributed via its partners' network. Leveraging its technological expertise of Broadband Telephony, B3G Telecom offers today the telecom solutions of tomorrow.

B-Initial is a Carrier Pre-selection offer which enables substantial savings very easily on the bulk of communications;

B-Direct is a broadband telephone subscription service which enables large savings not only on telecommunications, but also on subscription fees, without changes to the private telephone equipments of the company.

B-Centrex is a comprehensive IP Centrex offer, encompassing all the classical PABX functionalities as well as Telephony/IT convergence features; B-Centrex enables substantial savings on the bulk of the enterprise telephony budget (communications, subscription fee and switchboard).

B-Specific is a bespoke voice/data convergence service offer, answering multiple-sites enterprise complex voice/data telecom needs (broadband telephony, IP-VPNs, teleworkers, field employees, etc.).

B3G Telecom's distribution partners are retailers and brokers and are all enterprise telecommunications professionals: telecom integrators, private fitters, data integrators, "switchless" operators, VoIP specialists, etc.

About AXA Private Equity www.axaprivateequity.fr

AXA Private Equity is a subsidiary of AXA Investment Managers, with offices in Paris, Frankfurt, London, New York and Singapore. It focuses on investments in unlisted companies and its expertise spans all types of Private Equity (LBO, venture, capital development, funds from primary or secondary funds). AXA Private Equity independently manages and/or advises Private Equity funds with combined assets in excess of EUR 7 billion for some of the world's leading investors. With a constant focus on transparency, performance and sustainable profitability, AXA Private Equity is supported by the expertise of its staff and its international experience.

The Venture activity has been developed since 1998 using its different offices. It assists companies at all stages of their development, by offering an active partnership to accelerate growth and profits.

More than 40 companies with strong technological expertise trust the Venture team at AXA Private Equity in the Information Technologies and Science of Life fields.

About Societe Centrale d'Investissements

Societe Centrale d'Investissements is an investment holding company of BNP Paribas Group. BNP Paribas which has significant investment in private equity, was holding a private equity invesment portfolio worth 4.2 billion euros on the 30th of September 2005.

About Partech International www.partechvc.com

Founded in 1982, Partech International is a leading global venture capital firm with $850M under active management and offices in the U.S., Europe and Israel. Partech invests exclusively in Information Technology and the firm's internationally integrated team of investing partners work together closely to find the most innovative companies demonstrating high return potential and disruptive technologies in the Software & Internet, Communications & Components and Healthcare IT sectors. Partech has a unique 20+ year track record assisting its portfolio companies to become global market leaders. Some of Partech's successful investments include: Ascend Communications, Alvarion, Business Objects, Cadence, CSG Systems, Digital Island, Informatica, Pentasafe and Vignette.