INVESTOR RELATIONS

STM Group PLC (AIM:STM), the cross border financial services provider, is today pleased to announce the launch of its wholly owned subsidiary, STM Life Assurance PCC Plc (“STM Life”), which has been granted a licence by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to write Class III, linked long term life assurance business.

Linked life assurance comprises contracts of insurance, both life and annuity, where the benefits are determined wholly or partly by reference to the value of the assets underlying the policy. STM Life has been structured as a protected cell company, under Gibraltar’s Protected Cell Companies Act 2001, so that the assets of each policy will, under Gibraltar law, be legally separated from the assets (and any liabilities) of all other insurance contracts that it enters into.

Gibraltar is part of the UK Member State for EU purposes (unlike the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) which means that STM Life will benefit from the fundamental freedom to provide its financial products and services to the 456 million citizens of the EU’s 25 Member States. STM Life will shortly be applying to “passport” its services into a number of Member States, which offer favourable tax treatment to insurance products, starting with the UK.

Linked life policies are frequently funded by a single premium, which can be paid in cash or by the transfer of an existing portfolio of stocks and shares. Such policies are frequently referred to in the financial press as “insurance wraps” or “insurance bonds”. Acknowledging the increasingly diverse range of assets which appeal to High Net Worth Individuals (“HNWIs”), including shares in private companies, real estate, participation in hedge funds, REITs and EIFs. STM Life will offer “open architecture” policies which can hold any asset considered suitable by STM Life’s directors.

STM Life will partner with a number of specialist financial advisers and insurance and investment intermediaries in the UK (and in due course in other EU jurisdictions) to offer its insurance products to their clients.

Commenting on the launch of STM Life, Tim Revill, Chief Executive Officer of STM Group PLC, said: “This is a very exciting and timely development for the Group. Insurance products, “wraps” as they are often known, are becoming an increasingly important and popular method of protecting and administering the assets of HNWIs, including those resident, but not domiciled in the UK and their offshore trustees and expatriates returning to the UK.”

Alan Kentish, CEO of STM Fidecs Insurance Management, which will provide administration services to STM Life, said: ”The launch of STM Life will differentiate the Group from most other CTSPs, who are not equipped to offer their own life assurance products. We anticipate considerable earning potential, with very low downside risk.”

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Notes to editors:

STM is a multi-jurisdictional financial services group listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. The Group specialises in the delivery of a wide range of financial service products to professional intermediaries and in the administration of assets for international clients in relation to retirement, estate and succession planning, and wealth structuring.

Today, STM has trading operations in Gibraltar, Malta, Jersey, and Spain. It has also recently opened satellite offices in South East Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa. The Group continues to expand through the development of additional products and services that its ever-more sophisticated clients demand.

STM has, for example, a dedicated international pensions division which specialises in Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) and Qualifying Non-UK Pension Schemes (QNUPS); it also has a Gibraltar Life Insurance Company, STM Life Assurance PCC PLC, which provides life insurance bonds - wrappers in which a variety of investments, including investment funds, can be held.

Further information on STM Group can be found at www.stmgroupplc.com