As already notified on 23 May, the responsible competition authorities in Great Britain approved the sale of Ascom Mailing Systems to Neopost SA without conditions. Following this, Ascom and Neopost immediately implemented the second phase of the transaction. This encompasses the sale of the whole of the remaining mailing business outside of North America and was finalised on 31 May 2002. The sales price amounts to euro 84 million. Ascom will accordingly further reduce its debts and improve the balance sheet situation.