Hugin is Europe´s leading provider of innovative solutions for connecting communication professionals with their target audiences.

Euronext expanded into the corporate news distribution market in March this year when it acquired Companynews. Hugin and Companynews are now to be integrated to create an independent entity with its own management team led by Tor Baekkelund, the current CEO of Hugin. The new company will be in a better position to take advantage of the new European Transparency Directive, set to come into effect in January 2007. It will benefit from the new financial reporting requirements laid down in the Transparency Directive and the need for more targeted distribution.

Clients of the new company will benefit from enhanced services including the combination of the strong distribution networks of Hugin and Companynews, strengthening of existing products, and faster development and delivery of new products. This will give Hugin and Companynews clients more services to choose from. The new company will also be in a better position to deliver services tailored to specific client needs. Hugin's clients are mainly based in northern Europe, while Companynews has built up strong positions in France, Italy and Spain.

"Integrating Hugin with Companynews will give us a very strong position in corporate news distribution. This will provide the Information Services SBU with an additional source of income and strengthen our strategy of developing services for our listed companies," said André Went, managing director of Euronext's Information Services SBU.

"Euronext's commitment to the industry and the strategic fit with Companynews will strengthen our ability to deliver innovative products and services to all clients in the future," says Tor Baekkelund, CEO of the new company. "They are the one's that will really gain from this, as we intend to bring more products to the market faster with the aim to solve their future needs. In fact, we are well underway as new services will be launched in the beginning of next year," Tor Bækkelund continues. "I am delighted to join Euronext; it is good for our clients, our company and our employees."

Olivier Mégean, CEO of Companynews said, "We are delighted that we will be continuing our efforts to develop the market for news distribution with Hugin, which has a very good product offering that is highly complementary to ours, and operates in a different geographic area."