(09/09/2003) By acquiring Ilevo, Schneider Electric consolidates its position in high-speed communication infrast

Rueil-Malmaison (France), September 9th, 2003 - To boost its position in the field of Powerline Communications , Schneider Electric has acquired Ilevo, a company based in Karlstad (Sweden), a former spin-off from Ericsson, previously under the majority control of Itact, a venture capital corporation specializing in avant-garde technology, based in Stockholm, and other shareholders including Swedish electricity distribution corporations. An acquisition in line with Schneider Electric strategy 'With the acquisition of 100% control of the Swedish company, Ilevo, Schneider Electric is pursuing its dynamic innovation approach. The acquisition not only brings in the most outstanding offering currently on the market but also a powerful mechanism for developing products, enabling us to envisage the evolution of future product ranges right away,' explained Jean Kieffer, Energy Market and Infrastructure Director. Creation of a powerful player As a result of this acquisition, Schneider Electric has just created a new entity, 'Schneider Electric Powerline Communications', with the aim of quickly becoming the reference player in this field. Creation of this entity gives the group a unit complementary to Easyplug (a joint venture owned 50/50 with Thomson Multimédia), which is continuing its work to develop PLC multimedia offerings for the general public. The new company, based on Ilevo's existing resources, has a combination of acknowledged experts in PLC, telecommunications and electricity distribution. It is based at Karlstad (Sweden) and Grenoble (France). To quote Mattias Astrom, the CEO of Schneider Electric Powerline Communications, 'Our aim is to design, produce and sell PLC products, at the same time offering the necessary services and support to all the players involved (local authorities, electricity distribution corporations, telecommunications operators and Internet service providers, etc.). Our objective is to have 500,000 connection points installed by 2006.' After a successful experimentation phase, based primarily on the implementation of various pilot projects, Schneider Electric has moved into the commercial deployment stage. The conditions for swift market development have now been achieved and there are real opportunities for growth, on European markets in particular. The maturity of Powerline Communications technology has encouraged the emergence of viable commercial solutions well-received by telecommunications operators. Changes in regulations are progressively fostering use of this technology, while demand from customers is increasing due to growing data exchange and communication requirements. About Itact 'Since ITACT's first engagement at the founding of ILEVO in May 2000 we have supported the company because we were sure that enabling high-speed networking over the conventional power grid would open up significant business opportunities all over the world. The acquisition of Ilevo by Schneider Electric proves this and provides Ilevo with an excellent launching pad,' says Fredric Gunnarson, CEO and Partner of ITACT. Founded in 1999, ITACT currently manages the E32 million V2 Fund. More information can be found at www.itact.com Contact: Fredric Gunnarson, ITACT CEO & Partner, +46-70-953 44 99 About Schneider Electric Give the best of the New Electric World To everyone, everywhere, at any time Schneider Electric, the world's Power & Control specialist with leading mondial brands such as Merlin Gerin, Square D and Telemecanique, offers a comprehensive range of products and services for the following markets: residential, buildings, industry and energy and infrastructure. Schneider Electric's 74 800 employees generated sales of EUR 9.1 billion in 2002 through 13,000 sales outlets in 130 countries. Powerline Communications technology (PLC) PLC technology uses existing electricity distribution networks as communication infrastructures for carrying digital information. Every power socket becomes an Internet access point, now uniform and viewable by everyone, everywhere. This combination of information systems, communications and electricity constitutes a reliable technical system for carrying high-speed data over the last few kilometers or meters of its path, from the information highways to the end user. Simplicity, speed, quality and security PLC architecture is simple and fast to install since it does not require cumbersome civil engineering work to put in new cables and does not disturb the operation of existing infrastructures. Moreover, PLC products achieve very high levels of performance, offering an excellent quality of service and safety, which can support the most demanding and most complex Internet, network and multimedia applications. As well as developing and facilitating access to high-speed communications networks, PLCs can also: . carry voluminous multimedia content and services such as Voice - Data - Images, IP (Internet Protocol) telephony, video on demand, etc. . offer greater access to applications such as the Internet, remote teaching facilities, remote management, remote maintenance, telework, video surveillance and videoconferencing, etc.. . provide perfect security for data exchange, thanks to the electricity transformer station that acts as a veritable physical 'firewall' and an authentication mechanism based on a master/slave protocol. Technical solutions tailored to requirements PLC technology comes in 2 different architectures: - The Electrical Local Loop, which consists of distributing high-speed digital information to a group of buildings (town, district, etc.), and constitutes a veritable high-speed access platform. It is intended for power distribution operators, local authorities and independent PLC operators. - The Electrical Local Area Network, which enables a building, company or office to be equipped, and permits the extension of local networks to an entire building with sharing of server resources. It is intended for large building operators, education establishments, government agencies, museums, hotels, hospitals, listed sites and exhibition halls, etc.. Investor Relations : Schneider Electric Alexandre Brunet Tel. +33 (0)1 41 29 70 71 / Fax +33 (0)1 41 29 71 42 www.schneider-electric.com Euroclear : 12197 Media contact : Schneider Electric Véronique Moine Tel. +33 (0)1 41 29 70 76 / Fax +33 (0)1 41 29 71 95 Media contact : DGM Michel Calzaroni Olivier Labesse Tel. +33 (0)1 40 70 11 89 / Fax +33 (0)1 40 70 90 46 (C) Companynews