BSD.L Regulatory News (BSD)

20 Aug 2007 07:02

Emblaze Ltd20 August 2007 Emblaze raises approx. $60m in Bonds for it's Formula Group Subsidiary Matrix Matrix was rated Aa3 for the Bond issue to Israeli institutions on the Tel-AvivStock Exchange. Primary use of proceeds will be company expansion via global M&A activity Ra'anana, Israel, 20 August 2007 - Emblaze Ltd ("Emblaze or "the Group") (LSE:BLZ) announces that Matrix IT Ltd. (TASE: MTRX), a member of the Emblaze/FormulaGroup (NASDAQ: FORTY and TASE: FORT), ("Matrix" or "the Company"), completed aprivate fund raising in an amount of approximately US $60 through the issuanceof unlisted bonds to institutional investors in the Tel-Aviv stock exchange. The demand recorded for the issuance achieved over-subscription of approximately$120m.The bonds bear a fixed interest of 5.15% linked to the Israeli Consumer PriceIndex (CPI) and will be repaid in four equal installments between the years 2010 and 2013. The Company intends to issue the bonds for trading in the future. Guy Bernstein, CEO of Emblaze said: "The fund raising was successfully completeddespite the fact that worldwide markets have been dropping in the past couple ofweeks. This, together with the successful $20m fund raising of Sapiens which wascompleted in June, is a demonstration of the markets increasing confidence inEmblaze as a controlling shareholder of the Formula Group and investors'appreciation of the improvement measures implemented by Emblaze across theFormula subsidiaries. We intend to continue to work hard alongside themanagement of the companies to further improve their operations and increaseshareholders value." Emblaze LtdHadas Gazit, Hagit Gal +972 9 7699302/ 339 Corfin CommunicationsHarry Chathli, Neil Thapar +44 (0)20 7929 8989 Eisenberg-Eliash LTD., Investor & PublicrelationsAmir Eisenberg +972 3 7538828 / +972 52 8260285 Notes to editor: About Matrix IT Ltd. Matrix IT Ltd. is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange index 100. Matrix is oneof the leading integration and information technology (IT) services providers inIsrael. The company has circa 3,300 employees which provide services for over500 clients in the Israeli market. The company is active in four major sectors:software solutions and products, Integration solutions as well as operation oftraining centers in the hi-tech field and professional training courses invarious sectors. The company provides its products and solutions to a variety ofcustomers in various sectors: banking and finance, communications and security,industry and trade for government institutions and for different companies inthe public sector. For more information, please visit www.matrix.co.il About Emblaze Emblaze Ltd is a group of technology companies addressing both growth andinnovation activities thus combining the stability of "bread and butter" maturetechnology enterprises with "high-risk / high-reward" investments in innovation. Growth activities Formula Systems, which includes: - Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ & TASE: MGIC) develops, markets and supports composite application development and deployment platforms with a service-oriented architecture (SOA), including application integrationand business process management (BPM), with existing and legacy systems; - Matrix IT Ltd. (TASE: MTRX) is one of Israel's leading integration andinformation technology services companies, active in four principal areas:software solutions and services, software products, infrastructure solutions andhardware products, and training and assimilation. - Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ & TASE: SPNS) is a provider of IT solutions that modernize business processes to enable insurance and other companies to quickly adapt to changes. - nextSource Inc., designs, develops and implements web-based, high quality, innovative human capital management solutions. Innovation activities - Emblaze Mobile, an designer of advanced mobile devices; - emoze, a free global Push Email technology for mobile devices - ZONE-IP (Emblaze V CON), a provider of wireless video communications technologies and conferencing solutions for operators and enterprise markets over IP networks - Orca Interactive (LSE: ORCA), provider of Interactive Television IPTV middleware for Video On Demand (VOD) and broadcast services ; and - Visual Defence (LSE: VDI), (minority stake) a wireless and IP video solutions provider for military and homeland security markets. Emblaze Group is traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BLZ) since 1996.www.Emblaze.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange