17 Aug 2000  

The operating profit for the 1^st half year 2000 was NOK 1.5 million, after providing for social taxes of NOK 1.1 million on the exercise of share options, as compared with an operating loss of NOK 5.7 million in the same period last year. The pre-tax profit was NOK 3.0 million in the 1^st half year, compared with a pre-tax loss of NOK 2.4 million in the same period last year.

Cost control and market growth Norman ASA had net revenues of NOK 53 million in the 2^nd quarter 2000 and had an operating profit of NOK 0.4 million. In the same period last year, there were net revenues of NOK 46 million and an operating loss of NOK 0.8 million.

- The improvement in both net revenues and operating result is the result of Norman continuing to gain market share at the same time as keeping costs under control - says President & CEO, Bjørn Fosli. - In the 1^st half year, sales of Norman data security products increased with 34% while sales of data recovery and secure eraser products from the Norman-owned Ibas increased with 13%, says Fosli. This excludes revenues from Ibas’s repairs business which was sold to InfoCare ASA as at 1^st June 2000. An integration process is now taking place between the Norman and Ibas organisations in order to streamline and harmonise sales and marketing activities.

”I Love You” gave record sales Growth in the virus control market continued also in the 2^nd quarter with record activity in connection with the ”I Love You” virus in May.

- This may mean that future sales of these products will be dependent on ”virus situations”, where customers chose Norman over its competitors who, as a result of technical reasons or insufficient expertise are unable to tackle such situations as well. This, in any case, was the situation after ”I Love You”, says Bjørn Fosli.

Increased sales and R&D costs Norman had a controlled increase in operating costs in the 2^nd quarter. This arises from investment in a “project-related” sales channel for security products, as well as an increase in R&D costs.

In the 2^nd quarter, Norman has continued to build an organisation which can support the sale of security solutions to medium-sized and large organisations within banking and finance, telecom, industry and public institutions. This sale will mainly take place through partners, but due to the technology and complexity of these projects, Norman will continue to involve its own resources to an even greater extent.

- The investment in such a sales organisation will be considerable over time, but the demand for such software solutions is judged by research companies such as Datamonitor and Gartner Group to be ”explosive”, says Bjørn Fosli.

The increase in R&D investment was 30% compared to the 1^st half 1999, and accounted for 40% of the total increase in costs over the period.

Positioning in the IT security market Norman is extremely well positioned in the market for IT security products, as the company offers both virus control products and data recovery services, which generate high levels of revenue over the short term, as well as the growth area of security solutions, which are increasing strongly and which will be highly profitable over a somewhat longer term. In this connection, the letter of intent with the Czech company AEC, whose PKI-functional products complement Norman’s own security solutions portfolio, is considered to be particularly interesting from technological and market perspective.

On the basis of this, the board of directors and executive management of Norman are of the opinion that the company will continue its positive development also in the 2^nd half year.

Other milestones Other important milestones for Norman in the 2^nd quarter was a prestigious contract with the US-based EDS Inc, distribution agreements with leading partners in Korea, Malaysia and South Africa, as well as the launch of a new version of Norman Virus Control with new world-class functionality for distribution in large networks.

Enclosed is a summary of the preliminary financial statements for the 2nd quarter 2000.

For further information, please contact Svein Ramsay Goli, Chairman of the Board of Norman ASA (mob + 47 907 56 757) or Bjørn Fosli, President & CEO of Norman ASA, (tel + 47 67 10 97 17; mob + 47 905 18 468) /www.norman.no

Norman ASA Consolidated income statements (only annual figures are subject to statutory audit) 

Lysaker, 17th August 2000 The Board of Directors of Norman ASA

Svein Ramsay Goli Chairman