Affichage Holding announces the sale of its Hungarian businesses

Following the wide-ranging reorganization of its Swiss subsidiary APG, Affichage Holding is now scaling down its international activities by selling its Hungarian subsidiaries «Europlakat» and «A Plakat». Only «Neonlight» remains in the Group's portfolio.

By selling these companies, Affichage Holding is reacting to the huge fall in expenditure on advertising and the bitter pricing war in this area in Hungary. The sales will result in a loss, leading the Group to predict a negative net result for 2009. Christian Kauter, Delegate of the Board of Directors and CEO of Affichage Holding, commented: «Affichage Holding is continuing systematically to pursue its goal of reducing costs and increasing profitability. Selling our Hungarian companies represents an important step towards achieving this.» Mr Kauter also added: «Affichage will in future be concentrating more on countries with profitable growth markets.»

About the company
The media company Affichage Holding SA specializes in out-of-home advertising. Listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich, its subsidiaries include many highly-regarded companies at national and international level. These include APG (Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft), which has been bringing together tradition, quality and «Swissness» for over 100 years. Affichage is one of the top ten companies in the out-of-home sector worldwide and is regarded as a reliable partner and driver in innovation for the advertising industry and public authorities.

Information
Christian Kauter, Delegate of the Board of Directors and CEO, Giesshübelstrasse 4, CH-8027 Zurich
Phone:+41 58 220 71 66
E-mail: christian.kauter@affichage.com