Datamail to acquire Australian-based OSA

For immediate release 14 April 2003

Datamail to acquire Australian-based OSA

Datamail will acquire, through parent company New Zealand Post, a 75% share of the business processing organisation Outsource Australia Limited.

The deal is the result of several months of discussion and will see Datamail and OSA strengthen their positions in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market across New Zealand and Australia. The BPO market has been growing in excess of 20% per annum for the past ten years in Australia and this trend is expected to continue.

Datamail Chief Executive, Wes Brown, said the purchase would position the Datamail group well within this high growth area and provide significant benefit to customers on both sides of the Tasman. He says: "Both Datamail and Outsource Australia have similar service offerings, particularly in information management, records & document management, workflow and imaging services, database management and financial services.

"Combining these respective competencies will create a significant player in the BPO market space, able to leverage scale, technology, capital, intellectual property and customer relationships. The combined competencies will be delivered by flexible business models to provide a complete end-to-end information and business process management environment."

The 1,000 staff-strong Outsource Australia Group was established in 1994 as a mailroom, courier logistics, print, copy and records management company. The group has since expanded its offering into financial, information, travel, and property management services. It provides a total BPO solution for its core customer base of major Australian banks, insurance companies, stock broking and professional services firms.

Brown anticipates the two organisations will remain largely as they are and the structures will not be merged. OSA Chief Executive Graham Baillie, will continue to manage Outsource Australia on a day-to-day basis.

The acquisition is consistent with Datamail's growth strategy and will allow Datamail to better serve the growing number of New Zealand customers migrating to Australian control. Brown says it is also good news for the customers who use the services of both Datamail and OSA's New Zealand arm, Outsource Solutions Limited (OSL). New Zealand Post purchased 30% of OSL in 2002 and this latest acquisition will allow both organisations to improve on the synergies in their service offerings.

ENDS

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