TietoEnator's Annual General Meeting: Matti Lehti and Hannu Syrjälä
TietoEnator Corporation Press Release 27 March 2008 at 7.45 pm EET
TietoEnator Annual General Meeting convened today at 5 pm EET. In his
welcoming speech, Matti Lehti, Chairman of the Board of TietoEnator,
discussed the factors behind TietoEnator's strategy revision and the
actions the Board took during autumn 2007. Lehti also briefly
restated the Board's view on Nordic Capital's offer for TietoEnator's
shares.
"TietoEnator has been clearly undervalued during the last months, and
the low stock price has attracted an offer that, according to the
Board's preliminary opinion, does not reflect the real value of the
company. In our view, the price does not give credit to the already
begun Performance Improvement Programme nor the strategy revision."
said Lehti. He also stressed that the role of the Board of Directors
is to ensure that TietoEnator's shareholders get the benefit of the
potential increase in value achieved by these measures.
Matti Lehti adds: "The Board will make a thorough analysis of the
bid, but now already we are of the opinion that the bid does not seem
to bring any material changes to TietoEnator's current strategy. This
also reflects the fact that the offeror believes in the company's
potential." After having received the official offer document, the
Board will give its statement of opinion. The Board is also
evaluating other alternatives the company has for its effective
future value growth. The company has raised broad interest.
Hannu Syrjälä, the President and CEO, presented TietoEnator's revised
strategy and the Performance Improvement Programme that was launched
in January. Syrjälä reminded the meeting that the company has just
now started the corrective actions to improve profitability and it
will be a long-term process.
Syrjälä repeated that the programme is progressing as planned. The
actions taken by the end of February amount to annualized savings of
EUR 24 million. The company is on track in reaching the annual
savings target of more than EUR 100 million from the end of 2009.
Accelerating global sourcing is part of the programme. In 2007, the
number of offshore personnel increased by 60%. TietoEnator's goal is
to increase in three to five years the number of personnel in
offshore countries to account for 40% of all employees. About half of
this target was reached by the end of 2007.
In his presentation Hannu Syrjälä also represented some elements of
TietoEnator's growth strategy. "Regarding growth our development is
in line with the target announced earlier by the company", he said.
In the recent years, TietoEnator's net sales have in average grown
faster than the relevant market. In 2007, organic growth was at a
record high of 9%. Good growth is expected to continue.
Syrjälä sees potential in new kinds of services introduced by the
customers in the coming years. Information technology can and will be
deployed more fully in many sectors. For example Russia is considered
as the company's potential growth market. Additionally, TietoEnator's
market share is relatively low in Sweden and can be increased. Hannu
Syrjälä adds: "One of TietoEnator's main strengths is our excellent
customer base. We are the trusted partner of several Nordic customers
and internationally leading companies. Co-operation with these
growing companies keeps us on a growth track both in our home markets
and internationally."
For further information, please contact:
Reeta Kaukiainen, EVP, Communications and Investor Relations,
tel. +358 9 8626 3276 or +358 50 522 0924,
reeta.kaukiainen@tietoenator.com
TIETOENATOR CORPORATION
DISTRIBUTION
Principal media
TietoEnator is among the leading architects in building a more
efficient information society and one of the largest IT services
providers in Europe. TietoEnator specializes in consulting,
developing and hosting its customers' business operations in the
digital economy. The Group's services are based on a combination of
deep industry-specific expertise and the latest information
technology. TietoEnator has about 16 000 experts in close to 30
countries.
www.tietoenator.com