The Carlyle Group Sells Majority Shareholding in Personal & Informatik AG

London - Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announces the sale of its majority shareholding in Personal & Informatik AG (P&I), a human resources software and services vendor to small and medium sized enterprises based in Wiesbaden, Germany. The Carlyle Group has been the major shareholder of Personal & Informatik since June 2004. The Carlyle Group's indirectly held shares, totaling 66.64% of the company, were sold with immediate effect on August 23, 2007 to 35 institutional investors in Europe and United States in a book-building process managed by Berenberg Bank.

It is planned that the two Carlyle representatives on the P&I supervisory board, Wolfgang Hanrieder and Michael Wand, will step down at the forthcoming AGM.

Michael Wand , Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, comments: "P&I has achieved strong growth during our three year holding period: 185% increase in EBIT, 36% increase in revenues, 50% increase in license revenues and an 18% increase in headcount. These efforts also resulted in a three-fold increase in share value to all public shareholders. With this evolution P&I has fulfilled all targets of our initial investment thesis and is well positioned for future growth. More recently the company gained additional momentum through strategic partnerships including ADP and LogicaCMG. P&I now benefits from greater liquidity and a strong institutional shareholder base."

Dr. Wolfgang Hanrieder, Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and Co-Head of Carlyle's Technology funds in Europe, comments: "From a shareholder perspective, this has been an outstanding investment for us and our partners. We were able to demonstrate our ability to create value in this important transition from a founder led firm to a successful and now fully independent public company. This value resulted from management's hard work, in positive cooperation with the supervisory board, and without any financial leverage. As shareholders, members of the supervisory board and also personally, we wish to thank Mr. Vasilios Triadis and his team for their excellent achievements."

Vasilios Triadis, Chief Executive of Personal & Informatik AG, adds: "I want to thank Carlyle for the confidence they showed in Dr. Voss and I, supporting our leadership of the company, and for the close cooperation we have enjoyed over the last three years. Their advice, expertise and judgment have helped us significantly and together we have made P&I what it is today – the market leader."

In the year ending March 31, 2007, P&I achieved earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of €12.3 million (previous year: €9.8 million), boosting the EBIT margin from 19.6% in the previous year to the present 22.5%. Total sales rose by 9.1% to €54.5 million. P&I AG will again propose a dividend distribution to the Annual General Meeting on August 28, 2007. A dividend of €1.00 per share is recommended for FY06/07 following an extraordinary pay-out of €3.00 per share in the previous year. P&I continued its strong performance in the first quarter of FY07/08, posting a 35% increase in sales and an EBIT of €4.3 million (previous year: €2.0 million), which corresponds to an EBIT margin of 27.6%.