Emmen, Switzerland, August 6, 2018

ALSO Holding AG announced today that it has been contracted by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to run its sales and services business in Ukraine and Belarus as well as Lithuania as of November 1, 2018. With this step, ALSO expands further into Eastern Europe focusing on markets with growth potential in line with its MORE strategy.

Under the agreement, ALSO will set up separate legal entities in Ukraine and Belarus as well as Lithuania that will operate independently to sell HPE offerings and related services. By handling the responsibility for sales, channel management, services and marketing functions, ALSO’s local expertise will help HPE to strengthen its operations in these countries. ALSO will continue to deliver the desired and expected HPE experience across all available HPE products, services and solutions by leveraging the unique expertise of HPE’s partner community. This new model of cooperation will involve no changes to the daily operations of ALSO’s channel partners and no changes for the existing HPE partner ecosystem. Longer term, ALSO and HPE remain committed to investing in innovation and providing industry-leading product and services solutions for Hybrid IT, Intelligent Edge, and Pointnext services including converged infrastructure, private cloud technology, security and all-flash storage.

“This agreement represents a new vendor service offering for ALSO within its Solutions and as-a-Service business models that will unlock extra value for both organizations. We see a great future both in this kind of offering and our expansion into the region. We believe that it will boost our market presence in Eastern Europe significantly,” said Gustavo Möller-Hergt, CEO of ALSO Holding AG (SIX:ALSN).

“HPE is a global leader in IT infrastructure, and through our partnership with ALSO, we will continue to deliver our extensive portfolio of products and services to Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. This new initiative with ALSO will strengthen HPE’s position in the region and benefit current and prospective customers,” said Martin Kubala, Managing Director, East South Europe, HPE.

“We have selected ALSO as our partner for this region based on our long-standing, trusted relationship and together we will continue to deliver HPE’s industry-leading IT solutions and services to the region, with an even stronger experience for our customers and partners,” said Mikko Eerola, Managing Director, Finland and Baltics, HPE.

Direct link to the press release: https://www.also.com/goto/20180806en

Contact person: Simon Hertwig Phone: +49 89 80 99 025 25 E-mail:  shertwig@brunswickgroup.com

ALSO Holding AG (ALSN.SW) (Emmen/Switzerland) brings providers and buyers of the ICT industry together. The company offers services at all levels of the ICT value chain from a single source. In the European B2B marketplace, ALSO bundles logistics services, financial services, supply services, solution services, digital services, and IT services together into individual service packages. ALSO's portfolio contains more than 250 000 articles from some 525 vendors. The Group has 4 058 employees throughout Europe. In fiscal year 2017 (closing on December 31), the company generated net sales of 8.9 billion euros. The majority shareholder of ALSO Holding AG is the Droege Group, Düsseldorf, Germany. Further information is available at http://www.also.com

Droege Group Droege Group (founded in 1988) is an independent advisory and investment company under full family ownership. The company acts as a specialist for tailor-made transformation programs aiming to enhance corporate value. Droege Group combines its corporate family-run structure and capital strength into a family-equity business model. The group carries out direct investments with its own equity in corporate spin-offs and medium-sized companies in "special situations". With the guiding principle "execution - following the rules of art", the group is a pioneer in execution-oriented corporate development. Droege Group follows a focused investment strategy based on current megatrends (knowledge, connectivity, prevention, demography, specialization, future work, shopping 4.0). Enthusiasm for quality, innovation and speed determines the company’s actions. In recent years Droege Group has successfully positioned itself in domestic and international markets and operates in 30 countries. More information: https://www.droege-group.com

Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current assumptions and forecasts of the ALSO management. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could lead to material differences between the forward-looking statements made here and the actual development, in particular the results, financial situation, and performance of our Group. The Group accepts no responsibility for updating these forward-looking statements or adapting them to future events or developments.

For those countries that require consultation with works councils or other employee representatives, this is not intended to provide country-specific complete information and in no way reflects that final decisions have been made at a country level. With respect to such countries, final decisions are subject to prior consultation with works councils and other employee representatives, as required, and in compliance with local laws.