OPP.L Regulatory News (OPP)

25 Jul 2007 10:13

Origo Sino-India PLC25 July 2007 Origo Sino-India plcRNS & MEDIA RELEASE July 25, 2007 ORIGO INVESTS IN NEW DIGITAL AUDIO COMPANY WITH INVENTOR OF MP3 STANDARD Enters agreement to support activities in China and India Origo Sino-India PLC (Origo) (LSE:OSI), the investment and strategic advisorycompany focused on the private equity markets of China and India, is pleased toannounce that it has acquired 7% of the issued share capital of Bach TechnologyAS ("Bach"), a Norwegian digital audio company focused on developing anddistributing user friendly audio search and filtering technology. Origo has invested US$ 60,000 and committed comprehensive strategic marketdevelopment and management support to the company. Origo and Bach have alsoentered into an agreement for management services for Origo to support Bach inChina and India. Bach was founded and invested in by Dagfinn Bach and Karlheinz Brandenburg - oneof the inventors and IPR owner of the MP3 algorithm. Bach draws on decades ofscientific experience in digital audio search and filtering and has entered intoa global license agreement with the German Fraunhofer Institute for DigitalMedia Technologies. This agreement provides Bach with key components of a newgeneration of MP3 players and innovative MPEG-7 based search, filtering andmarketing applications especially focused on the Chinese and Indian markets. Chris Rynning, CEO of Origo, commented: "Bach's MPEG-7 Player is the only digital filtering solution based on the MPEG-7standard and is set to revolutionize the way users will retrieve and consumemusic. We are looking forward to helping them develop their business in theChinese and Indian markets" Dagfinn Bach, President of Bach Technology AS, commented: "Whereas Bach is addressing a global market, China and India holds the key tofuture online digital content distribution. We believe Origo can help Bachsucceed in China and India." END For further information please call: Chris Rynning, Origo Sino-India PLC +86 1390 124 6417 John Depasquale, Seymour Pierce +44 20 7107 8000 Christopher Joll/Tim McCall, MJ2 +44 20 7491 7776 Notes to Editors 1. Origo Sino-India plc ("Origo"): • Origo is an established private equity investor and strategic consultancybusiness, which provides its shareholders with exposure to growth opportunitiesand private equity returns in China and India. • Origo's business model is to generate capital gains from private equityinvestment in growth companies from which it also generates fees for consultancyservices related to further fundraisings, M&A and strategic development. • Origo is aligned with two major institutions which provide a source of highquality deal flow. In China, Origo work closely with China Equity, a leadingprivate equity firm, whose chief executive is on Origo's board. In India, Origohas entered into a memorandum of understanding with SBI Capital Markets, one oflongest established companies in the Indian Capital Markets. A former chairmanof State Bank of India is on the board of Origo. • At the AIM Placing in December 2006 Origo raised £12.8 million gross of newmoney via a placing of 25,673,238 Ordinary Shares at 50 pence per share. EachOrdinary Share carries a Warrant exercisable at 55p. Seymour Pierce Ltd is thenominated adviser and broker. 2. Bach Technology AS Bach Technology AS is a company registered in Norway, and is focused ondeveloping and licensing digital media technologies for the global market. Bachwas founded by Dagfinn Bach. • Dagfinn Bach (President of Bach Technology AS, Norway)Dagfinn is one of the pioneers in the online music space, and was involved inthe development of the first MP3 player in 1993. He was a consultant for NokiaVentures organization in 1998 and conducted a feasibility study on the future ofonline music distribution over wireless networks in China. He is also a founderof Artspages International AS, one of the leading online licensing portals ofmusic. • Bach MPEG-7 PlayerBach MPEG-7 Player is an objective and democratic filtering solution based onthe MPEG-7 standard, which enables music search according to the physicalsemantics of audio files, and is set to revolutionize the way users willretrieve and consume music. Bach MPEG-7 Player creates value in the entire music value chain - from contentproviders, music portals and online music stores, handset and MP3 manufacturersto end-users. It will result in better content selection and management,resulting in increased sales from intelligent retrieval and long tailpersonalized recommendation. It will offer competitive advantage for the hardware brand, and easy music playexperiences to the customer. Bach MPEG-7 Player empowers consumers with an easy access to diversified musicportfolio, by providing an extremely user friendly application to search /generate play lists from existing music library on own MP3 player, PC, etc. The end-user can search for music based on various parameters like MusicSimilarity, Vocal Annotation, Music Segmentation, Instrument Percentage, MusicGenre, etc. It offers the flexibility to generate playlists of songs based onvarious categories, like playlist similar to a selected song of their choice,playlist based on an instrument like extensive guitar solos, or playlist basedon voice - like those containing only female singers. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange