Firm News

Worth Global Style Network Financing

Release Date:

24 April 2000

Law Firm:	Mishcon de Reya
Client Name:	Worth Global Style Network (www.wgsn.com)
Transaction:	Closing of its $20million second round of financing (See client release below)
Value:	$20million
Firm's Key Personnel:	Grant Gordon, Partner Alex George, Assistant
Other Parties:	Jerome Misso and Darrn Pererra of Nabarro Nathanson acted for ETF; James McDonald of Ashurst Morris Crisp acted for Nomura; Europ@web were represented by their in-house team

Client Release

WSGN Secures $20 Million in Financing Investors in the business-to-business vertical portal for design, textile and style industries include ETF Group, Europ@web and Nomura International London, April 14th 2000

Worth Global Style Network (www.wgsn.com), the leading B2B vertical portal for the design, textile and style industries, today announced the closing of its $20 million second round of financing. Led by European venture capital firm ETF Group, with Nomura International as the placement agent, the round also included an investment from Europ@web, the Internet investment vehicle of Mr Bernard Arnault, as well as a follow-on investment from Nomura International. WGSN will use the new financing to further expand its operations and global roll-out.

"With the breadth of out product, unique business model, experienced management team and strong financial backing, we're well positioned to capitalise on the needs of today's fast moving fashion and style industries" said Julian Worth, joint CEO and co-founder of WGSN. "Our investors clearly recognise the tremendous potential we have to be a dominant force in enabling the style industries to integrate the use of the Internet into their business processes and benefit from the resulting efficiencies and cost savings."

WGSN offers a subscription based online service that enables industry professionals to follow trends around the world from the comfort of their desktop. The service has become the de facto industry standard tool for the fashion and style industries. With over 300,000 pages of industry specific news and information, WGSN is one of the world's biggest business-to-business sites. Its subscriber base includes more than 500 of the world's leading fashion and style related companies. Following initial investment in June 1999, there has been significant acceleration in the company's growth. It currently has offices in 10 countries and around 200 staff.