Arbortext Secures $8.75 Million in Expansion Funding; Investors Include GIC Special Investments, Norwest Venture Partners, INVESCO Private Capital and North Coast Technology Investors.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

Arbortext, Inc., the leading global provider of XML-based software for content creation, editing and multichannel publishing, today announced that it has completed an equity financing round where it has secured $8.75 million in expansion funding. The round was led by GIC Special Investments, a member of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) group of companies, and with continued support from Norwest Venture Partners, INVESCO Private Capital and North Coast Technology Investors. The proceeds from the funding will be used by the company to accelerate the expansion of its worldwide sales and marketing efforts.

"We are extremely pleased to have GIC Special Investments as an investor in Arbortext and we welcome the opportunity to work with them as we seek to expand our sales and marketing presence worldwide and particularly in Asia," said Raymond Schiavone, President and CEO of Arbortext. "In addition, the continued support from our core investors is a testament to our strong operating performance in 2002 and the tremendous momentum we have entering 2003."

"We believe Arbortext offers global organizations the unique capability to dramatically reduce costs and time to market by implementing XML-based content publishing solutions," said Chih Tsung Lam, Executive Vice President for GIC Special Investments. "Arbortext's proven management team, leading technology platform and strong financial performance positions them well for continued success. We are excited to be working with them as they strengthen their leadership position in this rapidly growing market."

According to a recent study by market research firm Gartner, the XML publishing market will be over $2.5 billion by the close of 2003 (The XML Publishing Challenge: Overcoming the barriers and fulfilling the promise of XML for enterprise-level content management). Arbortext's Epic software provides multichannel publishing capabilities that capture all types of information into a single XML source and automatically customizes and publishes that information to all types of media. Epic reduces costs through reuse and automation, enhances the customer self-service experience by delivering dynamically assembled, individually tailored information, and integrates multiple departments for greater consistency and less redundancy.

"We are big believers in the XML revolution that is underway, and Arbortext is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this large market opportunity that is critical for today's Global 2000 businesses," said Promod Haque, managing partner, Norwest Venture Partners. "We continue to support Arbortext because the company keeps exceeding its revenue milestones and demonstrates significant growth each quarter. Led by an experienced management team, we have tremendous confidence in Arbortext and the strong value proposition the company and its complete suite of products bring to enterprises."

About Arbortext

Arbortext is the leading global provider of XML-based software for content creation, editing and multichannel publishing. Arbortext's software is installed at over 1,300 organizations worldwide. Current customers include American Express Financial Services, Audi, Boeing, Bombardier, British Aerospace, Caterpillar, DaimlerChrysler, Ericsson Telecom, Ford, General Electric, GM, IBM, International Thomson Publishing, Lucent, Nokia, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, Pfizer, Ricoh, Sun Microsystems, Toyota, United Airlines, Volkswagen, and Volvo. Arbortext is a founding member and active participant in the XML Activity of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, Arbortext has offices around the world. For more information please visit http://www.arbortext.com.

About GIC Special Investments

GIC Special Investments is the private equity arm of GIC, a global investment management company established in 1981 to manage Singapore's foreign reserves. With a network of five overseas offices in key financial capitals around the world, GIC manages a portfolio of over US$100 billion, in equities, fixed income, money market instruments, real estate and special investments. GIC Special Investments is among the world's largest investors in private equity. It is an active investor in private equity funds and direct investments in the US, Europe and Asia. .