Apax Partners

Travelex to acquire Ruesch International

London and Washington: 27 March 2007 - Travelex, the world’s largest non-bank provider of international payment services, announced today that it has agreed to acquire Ruesch International from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe for US$440 million.

Ruesch International is a business to business payments services company, based in Washington DC, with customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Australia, including more than 125 Fortune 1000 companies. Ruesch will be merged with Travelex’s Commercial Foreign Exchange division to accelerate Travelex’s growth in the international payments market.

Together, Travelex and Ruesch will continue to provide cross-border payment services to more than 35,000 small and medium-sized businesses, as well as multi-national financial institutions and global consumer and industrial firms.

Ian Meakins, CEO of Travelex said: "The acquisition of Ruesch strengthens our presence in the international payments market and reinforces our position as the leading non-bank provider of foreign exchange services. The combined business will now be able to offer an enhanced range of products, delivering even better value and superior services to our customers around the world.”

Thomas P Staudt, CEO of Ruesch said: "This move brings together the strengths of two innovative businesses, both committed to offering the best cross-border payments services in the market. We will continue to provide our customers with the market-leading payment tools they need to maintain their competitive edge in an increasingly global business environment."

Travelex was acquired by funds advised by Apax Partners in August 2005. Stephan Wilcke, a partner at Apax and a Director of Travelex, welcomed the transaction as very positive for both companies’ customers and employees: “In assisting Travelex in this acquisition, Apax has capitalised on its global reach using a combined UK and US transaction team to deliver a transatlantic deal for one of our global portfolio companies.”

Travelex was advised by Credit Suisse, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Financing for the transaction has been underwritten by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. Ruesch was advised by Lane, Berry & Co., Wachovia Securities and Ropes & Gray.

Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to complete later this year.

Enquiries:

UK
John Martin - CFO, Travelex
+44 20 7400 4000

John Antcliffe - Smithfield
+44 20 7903 0665

US
Thomas P Staudt - CEO, Ruesch
+1 202 312 6273

Notes to editors:

• Funds advised by Apax Partners agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Travelex in February 2005. The transaction was concluded, following regulatory approval, in August 2005. In April 2005, Apax and Travelex agreed with Standard Chartered Bank for Standard Chartered to acquire a minority stake in the company. This transaction also completed in August 2005.

• In December 2005 Travelex entered into a 10 year partnership with Western Union linking its Retail branches into the world’s largest money transfer network.

• In March 2006 John Martin was appointed Group CFO. John was formerly Group Finance Director of Hays plc.

• In May 2006 Peter Burridge was appointed Divisional Managing Director of the Commercial Foreign Exchange division from Siebel, where he was General Manager responsible for Asia.

• In August 2006 Travelex agreed to acquire 25 branches of Reisebank in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

• In November 2006 funds advised by Apax Partners and Standard Chartered Bank entered into an agreement to increase their investment in Travelex by acquiring the remaining stake owned by 3i.

• In January 2007 Travelex appointed Ian Meakins as Group CEO. Ian was formerly CEO of Alliance Unichem plc until its merger with Boots in July 2006 and he was previously President, European Major Markets and Global Supply for Diageo plc.

• In March 2007 Travelex successfully raised a £177 million Senior PIK Facility.