CentralNic Signs Agreement with Domain Venture Partners

CentralNic plc (AIM:CNIC), the internet platform business which derives revenues from the worldwide sale of internet domain names, today announces that it has signed an agreement (“agreement”) with Domain Venture Partners’ new investment fund, DVP II, whereby the Company has been selected to be the registry service provider for certain registries acquired by DVP II; meaning that CentralNic’s platform will be used to enable their domain names to be purchased through domain name retailers (“registrars”) worldwide.

Domain Venture Partners (“DVP”) recently launched DVP II as an investment fund, with a target size of US$400 million, to acquire Top-Level Domain registries, some of which are already live.

DVP (through DVP I) invested in 60 companies which applied for licenses to operate generic TLD registries, and has become one of the largest registry operator groups.

Commenting on the agreement between CentralNic and DVP II, Ben Crawford, CEO of CentralNic said: “This presents a fantastic new opportunity for CentralNic, and we are delighted to be working with the market leading professionals within the banking, legal and technology fields that support DVP II. This agreement not only fits well with our stated strategy to increase the inventory of Top-Level Domains carried by our platform, but also confirms CentralNic’s position as market leader in providing registry services. In addition to the potential to accelerate top-line and bottom-line growth for CentralNic, our experience and expertise in promoting registries will complement Domain Venture Partners’ already formidable Sales and Marketing capability. We look forward to working with the team at DVP II as both companies seek to expand our presence in the market.”

“CentralNic is an organisation that shares our passion to develop and transform the global domain name market place”, said Charles Melvin, Chief Operating Officer at Domain Venture Partners. “We are delighted to welcome CentralNic as a preferred technology back-end provider. We have been impressed by CentralNic’s experience in operating successful registry back-end services as well as its proven ability to market and help distribute domain names in a strategic and creative manner.”

For further information:

CentralNic Group plc
Ben Crawford (CEO) +44 (0) 203 388 0600

Domain Venture Partners
Charles Melvin (COO) +350 216 50000

Zeus Capital
Ross Andrews / Nick Cowles ( Corporate Finance) +44 (0) 161 831 1512
John Goold (Institutional Sales) +44 (0) 207 533 7716

Abchurch Communications
Joanne Shears / Olivia Stuart Taylor +44 (0) 20 7398 7709