Paris, 8 March 2006: ESI Group (ISIN FR0000065849), a pioneer and world leading solution provider in virtual prototyping and manufacturing processes, today announced its consolidated turnover for the fourth quarter and full financial year to 31 January 2006.

Consolidated figures

Breakdown of Q4 2005 sales

FY to 31 January 2006

Q4 accounted for 40% of the Group’s consolidated annual sales, again showing strong quarterly growth and intensification in the activity’s seasonality.

Breakdown of annual sales

FY to 31 January 2006

FY2005 sales totaled EUR 62.2 million, up 6.7% on the previous year (+6.3% at constant exchange rates). This significant increase in activity was achieved with constant perimeter.

Sector diversification continued, to the benefit of the energy and aeronautical sectors.

License activity recorded a purely organic growth of +7.5% (+7.0% at constant exchange rates). In particular, growth of PAM license sales was +9.2% over the year. The adoption of PAM-STAMP 2G licenses accelerated substantially, illustrating the suitability of the second generation offer to the evolution of client expectations, whether it be in Asia, America or Europe. The significant growth of the recurrent installed base, up 12%, attests to its excellent consolidation, associated with the previous year’s buoyant growth due to acquisitions (+26% of license sales growth between 2003 and 2004). Moreover, license activity recorded particularly strong growth in Europe, notably in France and in Germany, where the company achieved market share gains.

The renewal rate of license sales, which is a major indicator of ESI Group’s activity, was up a percentage point, to 88% from 87% in 2004.

Service business confirmed in Q4 the turnaround trend noted the previous quarter, showing a growth of +4.3% over the year (+3.9% at constant exchange rates). France saw high growth (+23%) for this activity, in particular in the energy sector.

Geographically, the worldwide activity broke down as follows: America: 17%; Asia: 33%; Europe: 50% and maintained an 80% ratio of sales recorded outside France.

The available cash position on 31 January 2006 remained at a high level: EUR 14.6 million (IFRS), with a net cash position improvement of EUR 1.4 million over the year.

Alain de ROUVRAY, ESI Group’s Chairman and CEO, concludes: “Steady organic growth, highly-recurrent licensing sales, acceleration in the adoption of PAM-STAMP 2G, growth turnaround of services, are all significant factors that confirm the relevance of the Group’s strategy and the credibility of our medium and long-term objectives. With 2005 essentially dedicated to finalizing the integration of our acquisitions to ensure the consolidation of the acquired installed base, 2006 should see further revenue growth and a reinforcement of our presence in high-potential areas. Announced in January, the development by acquisition of our high end services to support innovation and simulation adoption with South Korean clients is a positive illustration of this”.

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).

Listed in Eurolist compartment C of Euronext Paris - Next Economy - ISIN FR0004110310 - FTSE 977- Bloomberg ESI FP - Reuters ESIG.LN

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.