Novamedia shareholders transfer their shares

Amsterdam, 6 May 2009

Trust assures continued existence of charity lotteries

Shares in Novamedia, the company behind the postcode lotteries in the Netherlands, North East England, Sweden and Scotland, and the BankGiro and Sponsor Bingo lotteries in the Netherlands, are being transferred to a public interest trust.

The founders of the Dutch National Postcode Lottery have made this arrangement to assure the future and expansion of the charity lotteries. The Novamedia Foundation Trust (Stichting de Novamedia Fundatie) now holds almost 50 percent of the shares in Novamedia.

The three charity lotteries in the Netherlands are owned and managed by the Holding Nationale Goede Doelen Loterijen holding company. The shares in the holding company are held by an independent foundation. Novamedia owns the intellectual property rights to the three lotteries and receives 2.05 percent of the money spent on lottery tickets in the form of royalties. Novamedia also receives a fee for its services, which include the management of the lotteries, the provision of IT services, the issuing of information and other services. Last year Novamedia, which employs more than one hundred and thirty people, received more than 16 million euros in royalties and service fees from the lotteries in the Netherlands.

In the last few years Novamedia has also started operating postcode lotteries in Sweden, Scotland and North East England. Last year the company received almost 10.9 million euros from these lotteries. Almost all of this income was reinvested in the People’s Postcode Lotteries in Scotland and North East England.

Once all of the shares in Novamedia are held by the trust, it will be virtually impossible for the shares to be sold. The future of the company will then be determined by an independent board of trustees. The money derived from the lotteries will be used to expand new charity lotteries or donated to charities that support and protect people and nature. This arrangement will also assure the future of the charity lotteries.

At the end of last year two of the Novamedia shareholders, Chios bv and Media Avenir, transferred their shareholdings of approximately 30 and 19 percent to the Novamedia Foundation Trust. Media Avenir is a company owned by Novamedia co-founder Herman de Jong. Chios is an investment firm owned by Joop van den Ende. Chios became involved in Novamedia at the start of 2001, when Novamedia was preparing to launch a lottery in Sweden. Chios provided capital in exchange for shares in Novamedia.

The three remaining shareholders, Cella Media (21 percent), Frank Leeman Holding (16 percent) and Plein 2000 (14 percent), will also transfer their shares to the Novamedia Foundation Trust in due course. Boudewijn Poelmann (60), co-founder of Novamedia and chairman of the board of the Holding Nationale Goede Doelen Loterijen holding company has promised that he and his wife will transfer the shares that Cella Media holds in Novamedia to the trust before his 75th birthday. Poelmann is planning to donate his shares to the trust. The same goes for Frank Leeman, another co-founder of Novamedia and co-director of the charity lotteries. The conditions of a share transfer are currently being discussed with the fourth co-founder of Novamedia, 90-year-old Simon Jelsma.
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