Adliswil and Zurich, 8 February 2011 – In conjunction with the Zurich legal firm of Prof. Giger & Dr. Simmen Attorneys, homegate.ch is now offering free online advice for legal questions concerning real estate.

Starting immediately and in conjunction with Prof. Giger & Dr. Simmen Attorneys in Zurich, homegate.ch is making free online legal advice about real estate matters available to its users. At www.homegate.ch/living/legal-questions, surfers can describe their concerns in the areas of rentals (for both tenants and landlords), real estate purchases and sales as well as condominiums and inheritance law. Within two working days they receive at no charge an e-mail response and short analysis from the legal experts at Prof. Giger & Dr. Simmen Attorneys. Any further advice must be agreed separately and is subject to standard legal fees.

«This service creates true value added for our surfers. We are delighted to provide them with easy access to high-quality advice from proven experts with experience in all legal aspects of real estate, and this at no charge,» says Gergina Hristova, Chief Editor of homegate.ch.

www.homegate.ch/living/legal-questions
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Alliance between homegate.ch and Edipresse/Tamedia

9 September 2004 – The two media companies Edipresse and Tamedia will share a nearly one-third interest in the Swiss real estate Web site homegate.ch The existing property Web sites, swissimo.ch and tagesanzeiger.ch/immobilien, will be integrated into homegate.ch.

The first step will be the acquisition of 14.5 % of the homegate.ch shares by both Edipresse and Tamedia respectively. For the time being, the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) will remain the main shareholder with a two-thirds holding in homegate.ch. In return, homegate AG will acquire Swissimo SA and the online real estate operations of Tamedia. The previous minority shareholder of Swissimo SA, PubliGroupe SA, will receive 4 % of homegate AG. The company de Rahm, which also held shares in Swissimo SA, will not take a share in homegate AG. In a second stage, from 2008, Edipresse and Tamedia will acquire a majority interest in homegate AG. The parties have agreed to maintain confidentiality on the details of the transaction.

Charles Stettler, General Manager, Private Customers at ZKB, will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors at homegate AG, and Urs Hügli will continue to manage the company. Tibère Adler, General Manager, Switzerland of Edipresse Publications SA, and Martin Kall, Chairman of Executive Management at Tamedia AG will represent the two companies on the Board of Directors.

A centre of competence for real estate marketing

The previous operations of Edipresse (swissimo.ch) and Tamedia (tagesanzeiger.ch/immobilien) will be integrated into the online real estate operations of homegate.ch. At the same time, homegate.ch will be included in the existing property listings of the print and online publications at the two media companies. This will create a centre of competence in real estate marketing for Switzerland.

Swissimo SA will become a homegate AG subsidiary, and will continue to run the broker network SwissRéseau in western Switzerland. These operations will be extended. Existing customer and broker relationships built up by the Web sites swissimo.ch and tagesanzeiger.ch/immobilien will either be taken over by homegate.ch or continue under Swissimo SA.

homegate.ch will continue to provide online mortgage mediation in the form of an “open finance” model involving twelve partners operating in the financial market. In future, this distribution channel will be open to all first-class Swiss mortgage providers in addition to ZKB.

The transaction is subject to the approval of the Swiss Competition Commission (ComCo). Operations at homegate.ch, swissimo.ch, SwissRéseau and tagesanzeiger.ch/immobilien will continue unchanged until the ComCo decision has been announced.

homegate AG is a subsidiary of the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB). Established in March 2001, the company has some twenty-three employees and operates the leading Swiss real estate Web site, homegate.ch, which offers numerous services in the real estate branch.

For further information contact:

• homegate AG
  Urs Hügli, CEO, phone ++41 (0)1 711 86 10
• Edipresse Publications SA
  Tibère Adler, Switzerland General Manager, phone ++41 (0)21 349 45 24
• Tamedia AG
  Franziska Hügli, Head of Corporate Communications, phone ++41 (0)1 248 41 00
• Zürcher Kantonalbank
  Urs Ackermann, Head of the Media Office, phone ++41 (0)1 292 29 79

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