good growth company, quality investors and a nice new contract. looks good.

AVEVA and Schneider Software to create a global leader in industrial software

Summary
AVEVA Group PLC ("AVEVA"), one of the world's leading providers of engineering design and information management solutions, and Schneider Electric SE ("Schneider Electric") today announce that they have reached a non-binding agreement on the key terms and conditions of an acquisition of selected Schneider Electric industrial software assets (including, among others, the former Invensys software assets) ("Schneider Software") by AVEVA (the "Transaction").

Schneider Software's product portfolio offers solutions in Process Engineering & Optimisation, Operations Planning & Scheduling, Operations Execution Management, Asset Management, Operations Control and Information Management.

AVEVA will acquire Schneider Software on a debt-free cash-free basis and receive from Schneider Electric upon completion £550 million for consideration of new AVEVA shares to be issued to Schneider Electric, such that Schneider Electric will own 53.5% of the Enlarged AVEVA Group's (as defined below) fully diluted share capital immediately post completion. Based on the current AVEVA share price, the c. 74.0 million AVEVA shares to be issued to Schneider Electric as part of the Transaction have a current market value of c. £1.3 billion. The cash payment (described above) from Schneider Electric will be distributed upon completion (together with AVEVA's net excess cash, as described below) to AVEVA's shareholders (excluding Schneider Electric).

Given the relative size of Schneider Software and AVEVA, the Transaction will be classified as a reverse takeover of AVEVA under the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority (the "UKLA"). Certain information on Schneider Software has been provided by Schneider Electric and is included in the Additional Information section of this announcement.

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its neutral investment rating on AVEVA Group PLC (LON:AVV) and raised its price target to 1950p (from 1750p).