Paris, 12^th September 2006: ESI Group (ISIN FR0004110310), a pioneer and world leading solution provider in virtual prototyping and manufacturing processes, today announced its consolidated turnover for its first half-year to 31^st July 2006.

Change in quarterly and half-year sales:

Financial year ended 31 January

Reminder: These first-half figures are on a constant business perimeter, and thus reflect purely organic growth.

ESI Group’s sales for the second quarter of FY2006 totalled 13.6 million euros, up +14.6% on the same period last year and up +16.4% on a constant exchange rate basis. This significant increase in activity is a combination of buoyant growth in licence sales of +18.7% and slight growth in services of +2.2%.

Total sales for the entire first half-year reached 26.4 million euros, up +4% in real terms and +4.3% on a constant exchange rate basis.

Licence sales, up +4.9% over the first half, were up +5.3% on a constant exchange rate basis. The 77% contribution of licences sales to total sales remains high over the period, while the repeat rate of licence sales reaches a good level of 79% (vs. 77% for the same period last year).

Alain de Rouvray, ESI Group’s Chairman and CEO, commented: “The excellent level of licence sales over the second quarter enabled us to record first-half revenues in line with our expectations. Given the shifts in licence renewals over the calendar year observed over the first quarter, there should still be a substantial seasonal skew over this current financial year.”

The proportion of half-year sales recorded abroad remained stable at 83%. The geographical breakdown in sales was as follows: Europe 42%, Asia 43% and America 15%. Organic growth was particularly strong in Asia, and notably in Korea and China, where the Group recently increased its position through the integration of the service and distribution engineering teams of IPS International and ATE Technology.

The strategic partnership signed with ATE Technology during the first half of this year enabled to share rapidly a valuable complementary know-how which resulted in the winning of a significant first contract in the aeronautical sector in composite materials simulation.

Alain de Rouvray concluded: “These first six months illustrate the rapid strengthening of our position in China and Korea, associated with an excellent sectorial diversification in aeronautics. Our integrated solutions which associate the realistic modelling of materials confirm their industrial benefits at the forefront of innovation. The substantial success they are meeting with on these particularly demanding markets should pursue through the second half of the financial year”.

About ESI Group

ESI Group is a world-leading supplier, and a pioneer of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics of materials. ESI Group has developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry oriented applications to realistically simulate a product’s behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and evaluate the environment’s impact on product performance. ESI Group’s products, which have a proven track record in manufacturing and have been combined in multi-trade value chains, represent a unique collaborative and open virtual engineering solution known as the Virtual Try-Out Space (VTOS), enabling virtual prototypes to be improved in a continuous and collaborative manner. This integrated protocol allows all the company’s solutions to work with each other and with applications developed by independent software vendors. By significantly reducing costs and development lead times and enabling product/process synergies, VTOS solutions offer major competitive advantage by progressively eliminating the need for physical prototypes during product development. The company generated sales of €62.2m in 2005, employs over 500 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in Eurolist compartment C of Euronext Paris. For further information, visit www.esi-group.com.

ESI GROUP has been qualified as “an innovative company” since January 20 2000 by the ANVAR and is eligible for inclusion in “FCPI” (venture capital trusts dedicated to innovation).

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Virtual Try-Out Space® and VTOS® are registered trademarks of ESI Group. All other products, names or companies are the brands or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Full H1 2006 results and Q3 2006 sales will be released on 29th November 2006 (after market)