March 15, 2004

The European Bank for Fund Services GmbH (ebase) and Cominvest Asset Management GmbH (COMINVEST) in Munich will outsource large parts of their IT infrastructure. Starting in April, Lufthansa Systems will take over the operation of 175 ebase servers and the management of some 450 workplaces. In this context, Lufthansa Systems will collaborate in setting up a data center in Munich and establish a central user helpdesk. Application development will remain with the ebase bank.

The contract volume for the long-term cooperation is in the double-digit million euros. The outsourcing deal extends to the entire IT administration of ebase and COMINVEST Munich. This includes in particular the maintenance of all operational systems, from workstations to telephones. According to the agreement, 21 eBase employees will transfer to Lufthansa Systems. "The cooperation will help us continue to focus on our core competencies," explained Dr. Volker Doberanzke, Chief Operating Officer of the COMINVEST Group. "This will enable us to realize significant savings in the near future."

The collaboration with ebase and COMINVEST Munich signifies another big deal for Lufthansa Systems in the financial sector and underscores the IT provider's cross-industry expertise. "Contracts with financial service providers represent a special challenge for us, as system downtime in the banking sector and in securities trading in particular can be very costly," emphasized Stefan Hansen, Vice President Business Segment Infrastructure Services at Lufthansa Systems. "A cooperation of this kind can only work when all relevant data are made available around the clock in a highly reliable, high-performance IT environment. We are therefore all the more pleased that both ebase and COMINVEST have trusted us with this demanding task."

Note to editors:

European Bank for Fund Services GmbH (ebase) is an electronic full-service platform for providing account management and account outsourcing services with the status of a securities trading bank. A subsidiary of the COMINVEST Group, ebase operates exclusively in the B2B arena. The company's business partners are fund distribution companies, such as broker pools, asset managers and insurance companies. ebase also provides outsourcing and other services to investment management companies.

Lufthansa Systems is a systems integrator that covers the entire range of IT services, including consulting, development, implementation and operation. Headquartered in Kelsterbach near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, the company has branches in Germany and thirteen countries and employs about 4,200 people worldwide.