Dexia, Europ@web Eye Ze Project

Dexia and Europ@web Friday announced plans to create a finance portal in a project valued at more than 100 million euros (US$101 million).

Ze Project is meant to be the first step in the development of a retail
financial portal, an idea which originated at Europ@web. With Dexia’s new
investment, it will receive a 20 percent stake in Ze Project, while
Europ@web will retain 80 percent of the capital.

Europ@web started building the project six months ago, and the site went live on Jan. 1. The
company said that 25,000 hits have been registered on the site in the past
three weeks. The site encourages visitors to give feedback on financial
requirements to help develop Ze Project’s future financial services, through
questionnaires, a suggestion box, and discussion forums.

Ze Project is currently pursuing approval from the French banking authority
to permit various finance offerings on the site.

Dexia operates online banking units in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Europ@web is the Internet investment arm of Groupe Arnault, with a fund
reservoir of 500 million euros ($505 million) for its ventures in Europe and
the U.S. The company has poured funds into Webvan, Oxygen Media, LibertySurf, Aucland, and Leisureplanet.