SolOceans

SailingOne - member of the French Sailing Federation and the Nautical Industries Federation - is a consultancy, created in December 1994, specialised in providing advice to companies and collectivities on their best use of yachting and sailing properties. SailingOne is also active in the organisation of sailing competition events such as the Trophée Clairefontaine of Sailing Champions, the Final of the French Solo Offshore Racing Championship - Course des Falaises and the SolOceans.

Through this operation, Eurosport Events, who is already Media Partner of all events managed by SailingOne, intends to support and accelerate the development of these competitions, and in particular of the SolOceans, the first single-handed oceanic round the world race that will be sailed on equal footing on sixteen metre high-tech Oceanic One Design monohulls, all completely identical, called the Veolia Oceans^®.

Eurosport Events not only brings expertise in organisation, production, marketing, and global communications, it will also handle the international distribution of these events' worldwide media rights, broadcast through the Eurosport network on Eurosport, Eurosport Asia-Pacific, Eurosport 2, Eurosportnews and eurosport.com's sites.

"The acquisition of shares in SailingOne deepens our existing partnership and reinforces synergies between Yvan Griboval's company and Eurosport Events. Together, we wish to develop sailing competitions, such as the SolOceans. This new oceanic race promises to be THE annual event for the most prestigious skippers", said Jacques Béhar, CEO of Eurosport Events.

"This new step represents a personal achievement after more than 30 years working as a professional offshore racer, journalist, TV producer and director, and for the last 20 years as adviser to companies, regional and local authorities, as well as organiser of major sports events" explains Yvan Griboval, Creator and Chairman of SailingOne.

"That Eurosport Events, a 100% subsidiary of the leading European media group Eurosport (itself a 100% subsidiary of the TF1 Group), has invested to this level in SailingOne underlines the perennity of our events, from the Trophée Clairefontaine to the Course des Falaises. In particular, the SolOceans deal with Eurosport Events will drive its international development in a shorter time frame, as well as guarantee accelerated implementation of our innovative concepts for the benefit of our current and future events' partners" he added.

Competitions organised by SailingOne:

* Since 1990, the Trophée Clairefontaine of Sailing Champions brings together each year, eight of the best French and foreign champions who race equally on a 7.65-metre long monotype catamaran, the SailingOne. The eighteenth edition is scheduled at La Trinité-sur-Mer (Morbihan, France) from Thursday 30, August to Sunday 2, September.

* The SolOceans is the first single-handed oceanic round the world race to follow a France (Lower Normandy) - New Zealand - France (Lower Normandy) course trough the three capes. It will be sailed on equal footing on sixteen metre high-tech Oceanic One Design monohulls, all completely identical. This class has been named Veolia Oceans^® after the Main Sponsor, Veolia Environmental Services, of the SolOceans race. The start of the first SolOceans is set for 25 October 2009. The SolOceans will then be run every two years. Beforehand, the first Veolia Oceans^® will sail around the world for reconnaissance purposes, from October 2007 to March 2008.

* Held every even year, the Course des Falaises is the final contest of France's solo offshore race Championship closing the season after the Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro. This regatta is runned on 10.10-meter long single-hulled monotypes vessels Figaro Bénéteau, according to the rules of the Classe Figaro.



About SailingOne
SailingOne - member of the French Sailing Federation and of the Nautical Industries Federation - mainly specialises, since its creation in December 1994, in the advice, conception, organization, creation and media exploitation, of leisure or competition-related sailing events as well as for concerned sportsmen and champions. SailingOne is also specialised in public relations and commercial promotion, as well as internal and external communications for the totality or part of these events. These skills are mainly based on Yvan Griboval's experience as a professional offshore racer, journalist, TV producer and director, adviser to entrepreneurs and to regional and local authorities, as well as manager of major events, whether sporting or not, with media coverage.

About Eurosport Events
Eurosport Events is a new subsidiary of Eurosport Group in charge of the organisation, promotion and development of international sporting events. Eurosport Events is today directly involved in motorsport series such as the FIA World Touring Car Championship and the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. It is also indirectly linked with the International Formula Master and the CIK-FIA Karting World Championship (through minority share holding and/or through contractual agreement).

About Eurosport Group
The Eurosport Group is today the leading multimedia platform in Europe with Eurosport, Eurosport 2, eurosport.com, Eurosportnews and Eurosport Mobile. Eurosport, the leading European channel is available in 20 different languages and reaches 110 million homes and 240 million viewers across 59 countries. Eurosport 2, the new sports channel launched in 2005, is already transmitted to 22.3 million households in 9 languages across 43 different countries. Eurosport’s 8 websites include four co-branded sites with Yahoo! in the UK, Spain, Germany, and Italy, as well as www.eurosport.com local language sites available in China, Russia, France and Sweden, clearly establishing Eurosport as one of the leading players for sports information and networking online with a total of up to 29 million visits per month across all sites. Eurosportnews provides up-to-date worldwide sports news and is transmitted worldwide. Eurosport Mobile offers Live streaming as well as WAP & I-Mod services providing all the latest sports news and Live results.