DGAP-News: Celesio AG: 'Pan-European outsourcing of

Celesio AG / Strategic Company Decision

26.03.2009 

Release of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Pan-European outsourcing of Celesio's IT infrastructure will increase
efficiency and reduce costs'

Stuttgart, 26 March 2009. Celesio, one of the leading international trading
companies and service providers for the pharma market, will outsource IT
services. For the coming seven years, HP, the largest technology company in
the world, will provide pan-European IT-Infrastructure Services for
Celesio. Celesio expects a significant increase in efficiency from this
cooperation.

'Celesio is a group that operates in several European markets, and thus it
is very important that we have a standardised IT-infrastructure in all of
the countries we are active in. The outsourcing will lead to a tightening
of working processes across the group - and hence to a significant
improvement in efficiency', says Christian Holzherr, CFO and Celesio's
member of the management board responsible for IT.

The IT sourcing solution will support Celesio's business objectives. This
will be achieved by a standardised, modular and demand oriented IT
infrastructure. 'It will enable us to reduce operating cost to free up
resources for investments and, furthermore, increase flexibility for
business changes and growth over the years', Holzherr stresses. The
outsourcing project includes a transformation phase for IT operations and
forms the basis for future application and process standardisation. 'From
2010 on, in the following years synergy effects of up to 200 hundred
million euros will be realised', Holzherr explains.

Press contact:

Rainer Berghausen, Celesio AG, +49 (0)711.5001-549

rainer.berghausen@celesio.com
DGAP 26.03.2009 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language:     English
Issuer:       Celesio AG
              Neckartalstr. 155
              70376 Stuttgart
              Deutschland
Phone:        +49 (0)711 5001-735
Fax:          +49 (0)711 5001-736
E-mail:       investor@celesio.com
Internet:     www.celesio.com
ISIN:         DE000CLS1001
WKN:          CLS100
Indices:      MDAX
Listed:       Regulierter Markt in Berlin, Frankfurt (Prime Standard),
              München, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart; Freiverkehr in Hannover,
              Hamburg; Terminbörse EUREX
End of News                                     DGAP News-Service
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DGAP-News: Celesio AG: 'Pan-European outsourcing of Celesio's IT infrastructure will increase
