Forum Archive Index - August 2000

["Christian Mair" <product@adidas-ep.co.nz>]

Jeff Dittus answers shareholder questions:

Thank you for your thoughtful questions. I apologize for taking a few days longer to answer them, but we are working hard on various initiatives that are time consuming. Here it goes.

Q: What PR work has or is being doen in the US to get ITC noticed?

A: IT Capital is working with Hill and Knowlton on a global basis to develop our PR strategy and implementation plan. H&K is one of the finest multi-national PR firms in the world, and thier global flexibility and presence works quite well with ITC. Since we now have operations in NZ, Australia, Singapore and the US, we are working with the relevant offices in each location. In the US in particular, ITC is developing a media and branding strategy, with specific goals to raise awareness in the investment community; the plan will be implemented this fall.

This PR push is something we all agree needed to addressed in the USA, and now that our new CFO is on board, we can build an effective investor and Public relations function. I will be spending quite a great deal of time finding strategic US partners for ITC and building our US profile.

Q: What markets will be important to upgrade the volume and stock price of ITC.

A: All of them of course. However, we are concentrating on Australia as our main priority in the next 12 months, and we are also investigating other Asian exchanges, such as Singapore.

Today, ITC has close to 5,000 shareholders. We watch this number all time, it is one of my KPI's. I strongly believe that ITC offers the small investor a unique opportunity to invest in a professionally managed venture capital fund, which until the advent of ITC, was unavailable.

NASDAQ remains a long term goal, but at present our focus is Asia Pacific where our investment expertise lies. Further, with NASDAQ we will have to comply with the Investment Company Act of 1940, which adds a layer of complexity that companies such as Safeguard and CMGI have to deal with. In NZ we do not and we get favorable long term capital gains tax treatment of 0% if we sell our long term holdings.

As technology improves in the long term, investment execution will not be so difficult on foreign exchanges, and ITC will always make sure that our disclosure as a public company is top notch.

Q: What are the insider stock holdings of ITC?

A: Almost every member of the management team has purchased ITC stock in the open market. When the window has been open, we have also been buyers at every opportunity. Unfortunately, in New Zealand, there is no form for insider transactions required by the exchange, because if there were, it would reflect positively on ITC. We also have a management incentive stock option plan in place, with standard terms of 3 year vesting to encourage long term team development. For specific information on numbers, please check our annual report.

Q: Do you have any aliances or partnerships with SFE?

A: We have no formal alliances with Safeguard, although I personally talk to them quite often. They just invited me to the US senior open at Saucon Valley, quite a place. Further, Don Caldwell obviously has quite strong ties to them.

Please feel free to continue to ask questions of me. I enjoy having an open dialogue with our shareholders. I expect the next few months to be very exciting times for ITC.

Jeff