ASBIS Romania Awarded for Largest Sales of Microsoft OEM Products

Bucharest, September 30, 2008 – ASBIS Romania has been recognized for the largest OEM sales during the fiscal year 2008 at Microsoft Club event. As the latest authorized Microsoft OEM distributor in Romania, ASBIS managed to outperform the other distributors after a relatively short period. 2008 is the second year in a row that sees ASBIS Romania nominated for the largest Microsoft OEM sales.

Now for the first time in Romania, Microsoft Club is an event dedicated to the most important Microsoft partners in all the categories: solution partners, MS Dynamic partners, Direct OEM, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) distributors, SMSP (Small and Mid-Market Solutions and Partners), and E&D (Entertainment and Devices). At this event, ASBIS Romania was recognized and awarded for the best results in the OEM sales field in Romania during the fiscal year 2008.

“This award honors us and makes us happy, as it represents the crowning of a very sustained effort of our team, the realization of a vision and of the determination over several years”, said Mr. Cristi Stroe, Country Manager ASBIS Romania. “When we were starting this business, we announced that we were going to be the first among OEM distributors, and everybody considered us dreamers. But it happened! And for two years now, we're the best in this field. We owe this success to our partners, with whom we have an outstanding collaboration, to the will and capability of our team, to our proven flexibility and to the marketing programs we’ve implemented for our customers.”

Within Microsoft Romania, the OEM department is the one that works with the computer systems producers and resellers. This department increased revenues by 32% in the previous fiscal year, contributing 38% to the overall sales of the local subsidiary.

Microsoft is one of the major partners of ASBIS in Romania, and together with Intel accounts for about half of the company's revenue. Since the moment  the company was granted the status of authorized Microsoft OEM distributor, the sales and the number of customers followed an upward trend.

^{About ASBIS}

^{ASBIS Romania is part of ASBIS Group, a top IT distributor in EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Africa), based in Cyprus. The Group specializes in the distribution of computer hardware components, blocks and peripherals, and a wide range of IT products and digital equipment. The Group also sells private-label products: Prestigio (LCD monitors, external storage, leather-coated USB accessories, GPS devices, etc.) and Canyon (MP3 players, networking products and other peripheral devices). ASBIS has own subsidiaries in 25 countries, more than 1000 employees and 20000 customers. The Group’s revenues reached almost US$ 1.4 billion in 2007, the net profit was US$ 18.7 million, whereas EBITDA was US$ 27.6 million. The company’s stocks are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since October 2007 under the ticker symbol ASB (ASBIS). For additional information, please visit www.asbis.ro and www.asbis.com.}

ASBIS Romania contact:
Mr. Drăguşin Puiu
Marketing Director
dragusin.puiu/at/asbis.ro