IPCOS acquires Aptitude Ltd

Today, IPCOS announced it has acquired a majority stake in Aptitude Ltd, a UK-based company focusing on delivery of high-performance Advanced Process Control (APC) solutions to the refining and petrochemical markets and the development of high-end APC software tools. Aptitude has offices in Cambridge, UK, and Chandigarh, India. Aptitude will change its name to IPCOSAptitude and become a member of the IPCOS group.

'We're extremely pleased that the Aptitude team is joining our ranks', said Peter van Overschee, CEO of IPCOS. 'With this acquisition, we are delivering on our growth strategy and bringing a wealth of experience and reputation into our company. The combined teams will accelerate the development of
state-of-the-art Advanced Process Control technology and tools, further increase our footprint in the APC market to refining and petrochemicals and significantly increase our capacity to deliver the highest quality APC solutions. It confirms our commitment to our customers to be a significant long
term player in the market.

'We are delighted to be joining the IPCOS team', said Sam Dhaliwal, Managing Director of Aptitude Ltd. 'This is an excellent match, both in business strategy and cultures. IPCOS and Aptitude are dedicated to delivering high performance APC solutions and software to the industry. We will
continue to serve our customers with the enthusiasm and skill they expect while expanding our capacity to deliver quality services and innovative software to the refining and petrochemical industries.'

IPCOS and IPCOSAptitude will integrate over the next months so that the synergies identified as the
drivers for the deal contribute to the company's success as much as possible.

Regarding IPCOS
IPCOS was founded in 1995 as a spin-off of the University of Leuven. In 2006 KBC Private Equity became the
majority shareholder of IPCOS. The company develops advanced process control (APC) and optimization
solutions, and supplies the services required to install and maintain them. The IPCOS engineers all have many
years' experience in APC solutions for the different market segments in which the company is active. Thanks to
strong investment in R&D and close co-operation with universities across the world, IPCOS is able to bring to
market state-of-the-art products. (www.ipcos.com). IPCOS currently employs 50 people and has offices in
Belgium (Leuven), The Netherlands (Boxtel) and Saudi Arabia. The consolidated turn-over of the IPCOS group is
6.5 Mio Euro.

Regarding Aptitude Ltd.
Aptitude Ltd specializes in providing software implementation products and services for the fast deployment of
Advanced Process Control (APC) and real-time optimization applications in the oil, gas and chemicals industries.
These include APC, process operations analysis, benefit studies, application maintenance and APC training
services. The Aptitude team has significant experience managing large, complex projects and satisfying multiple
stakeholders. Aptitude also develops and licenses the AptiTuneTmultivariable PID tuning software. Aptitude's
unique business model has contributed to the success of many leading plants and refineries worldwide. Aptitude
has offices in the UK and India.

For further details visit www.aptitudegroup.com or contact us at
info@aptitudegroup.com


Contacts:
IPCOS
Technologielaan 11/0101, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Peter Van Overschee,
Tel.: +32 16 39 30 87 E-mail: peter.vanoverschee@ipcos.com

Aptitude Ltd.
8 Humphries Way, Milton,
Cambridge, CB24 6DL, UK
CEO Sam Dhaliwal, Managing Director
Tel.: +44 1223 572441
E-mail: sam.dhaliwal@aptitudegroup.com