Trader.com Reports Strong First Half 2000 Results: Print Revenues Increased by 27% to E172.5 million; Online Revenues grew more than 11 times to E6.9 million.

Business Editors

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 2000

Trader.com, "The International Marketplace Around the Corner", announces today its unaudited results for the first half of the year 2000.

Highlights:

Strong Growth:

-- Overall revenues increased by 31% to E179.4 million vs. E136.7 million for
the first half of 1999

-- Organic growth amounted to 20%, including 6% of positive currency impact

-- Print revenues increased by 27% to E172.5 million vs. E136.1 million for the
first half of 1999

-- Online revenues grew 11 times to E6.9 million vs. E0.6 million for the first
half of 1999

Financial Results:

-- Total EBITDA remains positive at E5.6 million despite negative

online EBITDA of E35.5 million -- Net loss stands at E69.4 million under US GAAP compared to E17.2

million for the first half of 1999 -- After adjustments, including E33 million of non cash

compensation expense, net loss under French GAAP stands at

E44.7 million

Improvement in Financial Structure:

-- After the Initial Public Offering in March 2000, which raised net

proceeds of E353.1 million, the company's financial structure

improved significantly. Net debt was E61.1 million compared to

shareholder equity of E553.5 million, resulting in a

debt-to-equity ratio of 11% as of June 30, 2000

Major Developments Year-to-Date:

Strong Development of Internet Related Activities:

-- 23 Web sites were added to the portfolio, bringing the total to 64

as of July 2000. Of these, 21 are generalist, 38 are category

specific and five are auction sites -- Online traffic generation deals were signed with Yahoo! France,

Lycos Europe, Wanadoo France, AOL Canada and EresMas Spain -- Traffic rose sharply to 90 million page views per month, as of

July 2000, compared to 27 million at the end of 1999 -- Online Real Estate Auctions were introduced in Spain -- Strong increase in sales of auto-dealer and real estate solutions. -- Launched payment systems for conducting e-business across our

major sites -- Entered into a strategic partnership to deploy CRM solutions with

Pivotal Software Inc

Online: The Group purchased 51% of netclub.fr, a leading French personals business, 75% of Verzamel.net, a major Dutch internet auction site, 60% of House4sale.se, a Swedish real estate site and BuySell.com and Visitnet.com of Canada.

Continued Development of Print Activities:

Publication activities have increased both organically and through acquisition. The Group increased the number of offline print publications by 50 to a total of 285 as of July 2000, reinforcing both its content position and international presence.

Germany: Trader.com purchased a call option to acquire two leading

classified advertising companies, Avis and Revier Markt, operating

in the Northern region and Ruhr Valley of Germany.

Spain: A minority stake was acquired by the Company in the

Primerama/Anuntis Group (Barcelona)

Australia: The Company acquired three motoring specialist

publications: West Australian Auto Trader, New South Wales Auto

Trader and WA Top Marks. Trader.com also acquired Buy and Sell, a

leading free ad paper in Sydney and Collectormania, a nationwide

publication for collectors.

Since June, the Group made two further acquisitions; Bargain Finder in Canada and De Partikulier in the Netherlands.

Commenting on the group's performance, Louise T. Blouin, Chairman and co- CEO said: "Our first half results showed strong revenue growth both online and offline. The Company continues to bring buyers and sellers closer together by providing high-quality content and services. Our expansion will continue through both organic growth and selective acquisitions and partnerships. We believe our people, strong brands and content are the driving elements of our success."

Trader.com - "The International Marketplace Around the Corner"

www.trader.com

-- 285 Publications in 18 Countries as of July 2000

-- More than 7 million readers per week

-- 8 million unique advertisements for the first seven months

of 2000

-- 64 Web Sites with 90 million page views per month as of

July 2000

-- +4,000 employees, of which 1,500 are sales people

-- Listed on the NASDAQ (TRDR) and Premier Marche (First

Market of the Paris Stock Exchange - SICOVAM code 5729 and

Reuters code: TRD) since March 31, 2000

Forward looking statement

Certain statements in this press release may be considered to be "forward looking statements" as that term is defined in The United States' Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements that include the words or phrases "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue" is anticipated," "estimate," "project," or similar expressions. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by any such statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed or identified in our initial public offering prospectus and Form 20-F, which were filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including risks or uncertainties relating to our history of reported losses, levels of indebtedness, ability to service debt, future funding needs, the control of our company by a small group of shareholders, our highly competitive industry, our ability to make and integrate acquisitions, political and economic conditions of the countries in which we operate including Russia, the currencies in which we do business, our dependence on our management team, our expansion plans and workforce requirements, our content, our brands and our ability to develop new brands, our dependence on advertising including print and online advertising, our ability to expand our online business, the limited history of our online business, our online strategy and the expenditures required to implement it, the expansion of the Internet and our dependence on the growth of Internet usage, as well as general economic and market conditions.

Copies of the company's Interim Report are available for download at: www.trader.com/about/investor