Private Equity Week Wire for Wednesday, 12/27

London — The Chase Manhattan Corporation announced today that Tareq Al-Mudhaf has joined the firm as a Vice President and joins Nicholas Hofgren in London where they will jointly run a team within the Private Fund Group for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Mr. Al-Mudhaf will report into Dale Meyer, Global MD of the Private Fund Group.

Mr. Al-Mudhaf joins Chase after 15 years at the Kuwait Investment Office where he was Senior Investment Manager, responsible for a global portfolio of direct investments and investments in Private Equity Funds. In his new role, Mr. Al-Mudhaf will be responsible for managing the group’s relationships with investors throughout the Middle East.

Mr. Al-Mudhaf obtained a Masters of Science degree in Business Administration at Boston University and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toledo, Ohio.

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (Nasdaq:SPNS) today announced that Yarnfield International Limited, an affiliate of the Magnum Technologies Fund, and Formula Systems (1985) Ltd. (NASDAQ: FORTY) have agreed to invest $15 million in Sapiens in return for convertible preferred shares to be issued by the Company.

All previous series of the Company’s convertible preferred shares have either matured or been converted into common stock.

According to the terms of the private placement, which remains subject to shareholder approval, the preferred shares, which have a three-year term of maturity, may be converted into common stock at $1.50 per common share. The conversion price will be adjusted to 110% of the average closing sale price of the Company’s common stock in the second half of August 2001 and the first half of March 2002, if the common shares are trading at less than $1.50 on either of those dates. The conversion price will not be adjusted to a price below $1.00 per common share.

Other key terms of the transaction include the investors’ three-year option to invest an additional $15 million on the same terms as the current transaction.

Sunnyvale, Calif. — Cardiac Pathways Corp. (Nasdaq:CPWY) today announced a significant infusion of capital with the closing of a common stock financing.

Cardiac Pathways has issued and sold 5.9 million shares of common stock at a purchase price of $4.25 per share for aggregate net proceeds of $22.5 million. Principal investors in the financing include Van Wagoner Capital Management as lead investor, BA Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Venture Partners, State of Wisconsin Investment Board and Special Situations Funds.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of this financing to expand sales, marketing and manufacturing capacity for its key product platforms, the Realtime Position Management (RPM) Tracking System and the Chilli(R) Cooled Ablation Catheter, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Toronto — Blue Zone, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLZN), the interactive broadcast solutions company and NewsBZ(TM) software developer, announced today that it has negotiated new terms with investors, who participated in a private placement of Blue Zone’s securities completed in September 2000.

Under the original terms of the private placement, the investors paid US $4 million at closing for the securities and agreed to pay Blue Zone an additional US $1 million when Blue Zone registers the securities with the SEC. The investors also received warrants containing anti-dilution provisions and a one-year option to acquire up to an additional US $2 million of Blue Zone’s common shares.

Under the revised terms, Blue Zone issued additional shares of common stock such that the aggregate number of shares purchased in the private placement equaled 3,000,000 in exchange for the surrender of all the warrants and options originally obtained by the investors in the private placement and termination of all put rights of the investors. Blue Zone also returned $1.5 million of the purchase price for the securities as well as cancelled the $1 million payment due upon SEC registration.

Scotland — CoreData, the Scottish based aerospace data management company, has secured a £1.6 million first-round funding package to finance global growth. Aberdeen Asset Managers and Scottish Equity Partners co-led the deal. Banking and asset finance was provided by Clydesdale Bank PLC.

CoreData?s expertise in data management within the aerospace sector extends across technical and management information. The company has been working closely with customers in the various sub-sectors of the aerospace sector and the regulatory authorities during the development phase of the solution.

Miami — Punto-com, Inc., the leading provider of comprehensive, pan-regional coverage on the New Economy in Latin America, today announced the completion of a $9.3 million second round of private equity financing led by Citicorp Venture Capital (NYSE: C).Other investors include Glacier Internet Holdings, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Grupo Editorial Expansion, and the Spanish venture capital firm Latin-Rim. The proceeds from this funding are expected to take Punto-com to profitability by the end of 2002.

Cambridge, Mass. — Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS) today announced that it has closed the private placement financing announced on November 16, 2000, raising $46.8 million in gross proceeds from the sale of 5.2 million shares of newly issued Curis common stock placed with a group of institutional investors.

Boston — RetailExchange.com, a leading online business-to-business exchange for excess consumer goods, today announced the closing of its third round of funding with an additional $5.5 million in private financing managed by new investor American Express Financial Corporation. American Express Financial Corporation joins 3i, Koch Ventures and Exeter Funds, a trio of new investors who contributed funds in October; to bring RetailExchange.com’s third round to more than $30.5 million. A spin-off of Gordon Brothers Group, LLC, the privately held excess goods exchange has raised a total of $50 million in capital.The latest funding will be earmarked to further broaden membership, strengthen member support services and help expand RetailExchange.com’s penetration among top retailers and consumer product manufacturers worldwide.