The Solidarity Fund QFL Invests in Nstein

2002-03-05

Montreal (Quebec), March 6, 2002 - The Solidarity Fund QFL "Fund" has commited to investing $10 million in Nstein Technologies inc. « Nstein » (TSX :EIN), $6 million immediately in common shares and a supplementary conditional subscription of $4 million upon the exercise of equity warrants.

According to the agreement reached between the two parties, the Fund will acquire, through a private investment, 20 million newly issued Nstein common shares at a price of $0.30 each for a total amount of $6 million. In addition, the Fund will obtain equity warrants according to the terms of which it agrees to acquire approximately 6.7 million additional common shares. These shares will be newly issued at a price of $0.60 each, for a total amount of $4 million. The exercise of the equity warrants is subject to certain conditions in favour of the Fund, including Nstein's achievement of some financial objectives relating to its income and profits.

The equity warrants will be valid for a period of five years ending March 5, 2007. The minimum holding period by the Fund of newly issued Nstein common shares is 12 months. Furthermore, the Fund has been assigned two seats on Nstein's board of directors. Shareholders holding the majority of Nstein shares approved this transaction by a letter of consent dated March 5, 2002.

This transaction was carried out by the Fund for investment purposes and the Fund could increase or decrease its investment in Nstein according to market conditions or other pertinent factors.

High-level jobs

"We are very pleased to become partners with Nstein. This young company has developed a technology with a significant competitive edge, enabling it to make a major commercial breakthrough in the United States e-publishing market. Nstein is equipped with an excellent business model and an experienced team that has the talent and focus to implement it. We believe that Nstein combines all the necessary ingredients to become a real success. By investing in Nstein, we also contribute to strengthening and promoting high-level job creation in Quebec in a sector of the future," said Mr. Daniel Laporte, the Fund's vice-president, investments - information technology and telecommunications.

"Nstein is proud to have negotiated this investment with the Fund. In the difficult context of the current financial markets, this vote of confidence from one of Quebec's major players in technological investment, speaks directly to the strength of Nstein's business model and to the experience of our management team. We certainly will gain a great deal by drawing on the expertise and network of this new partner. Thanks to the agreement announced today, Nstein will acquire a high degree of financial autonomy and a strong balance sheet. The amount invested will be used primarily to support Nstein's commercialization activities in the United States and to pursue the development of new applications for its exclusive Linguistic DNA technology" said Mr. Mario Girard, Nstein's Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer.

About Nstein Technologies

Nstein Technologies is a public company listed on the Canadian Venture Exchange. The company develops and markets innovative content management software solutions based on linguistic artificial intelligence. Nstein's nserver" software solution automates time-consuming and complex tasks such as content classification as well as XML tagging and summarization. The company's products provide a significant leap in effectiveness and cost reduction for the content management, e-publishing and online industries. Nstein's intensive research in computational linguistics has resulted in Linguistic DNA" technology'which combines the strengths of linguistic and statistical analysis with artificial intelligence.

For further information on Nstein Technologies Inc., please visit www.nstein.com.

About the Solidarity Fund QFL

The Solidarity Fund QFL, with net assets amounting to more than $4 billion, is an investment fund that makes use of Quebecers' savings, particularly on account of its RRSPs, to help create and maintain jobs in companies and to contribute to the economic development of Québec. With over 500,000 shareholders today, the Fund has helped create, maintain and protect over
93,000 jobs, either on its own or with other financial partners.

• The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
• Any statement that appears prospective shall not be interpreted as such.

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