April 26, 2006 – Rottefella and NAXO (www.naxo.ch) will, through this purchase, become a world leading player in the international Alpine Touring and “free heel” (telemark) market and further give NAXO the necessary strength to continue the development of the company into a leading producer of Alpine Touring bindings.

The Rottefella investment into NAXO, will create a product portfolio of “free heel” bindings and a product development environment (75 mm, NTN and NAXO bindings) that will be unique in the ski industry. There are many similarities within the products and the users of the “free heel” bindings.

This is strategically an important step for both Rottefella and NAXO. We have a long term goal of becoming the world leading developer of Alpine Touring bindings, specializing in making the NAXO binding the preferred solution in the growing “free ride” market. Becoming a part of the Rottefella organization and receiving the synergies represented by their strong brand name, world wide distribution and product development capabilities, will definitely be an assurance to our continued growth, says Daniel Waldburger, President of NAXO.

Rottefella has purchased 62,5% of the shares from NAXO, and has the option to buy a further part of the remaining shares in the coming years. NAXO was established in 2001 and has during a short time become a very active player in the Alpine Touring market. NAXO expects a world wide market share in 06/07 of approximately 20%.

NAXO has within a very short time presented a very unique product range for the Alpine Touring market. The bindings, with focus on Alpine stability, are specialized toward the fast growing ”free ride” market. The company also enjoys very good position in Middle Europe and North America, which fits nicely in to Rottefellas ambitions in these important markets for the future.

The reputable Norwegian company has a 40% market position of the total cross country binding market through its NNN system. The company is also world market leader in Telemark bindings. Rottefella recently announced a contract with Fischer, which will make Rottefella the world leader in the market of cross country bindings.

We have noticed for a long time now that Alpine Touring and ”free ride” is becoming a fast growing new trend. This is also the reason why Rottefella is focusing so hard on launching a new telemark system (NewTelemarkNorm). The idea behind NTN and the development of this product will coincide nicely with our investment into NAXO. The market of alpine Touring is today almost twice the size of Telemark and is expected to grow fast in the coming years. NTN will have a lot of similarities with Alpine Touring. Among many new features, the new NTN boot will have the same geometry as an Alpine Touring boot and will also fit into Alpine Touring binding, states Ulf Bjerknes, President of Rottefella AS.

Since autumn 2001, NAXO – based in the middle of the Swiss Bernese Oberland – develops, produces and distributes qualitatively high-class alpine touring and free ride bindings. A highly motivated team with large know-how, many years of experience in the construction of ski bindings works with enormous endeavors on the rational transformation and the practical implementation of innovative technologies into ideal solutions and valuable benefits to customers around the world.