'Paramount Group is an African Aerospace and Defence Asset' - Ivor Ichikowitz in BBC World Interview

LONDON, June 29, 2010 - The developing defence industry in South Africa is an "asset
of the continent" according to Ivor Ichikowitz, executive chairman of
Paramount Group, South Africa's largest privately owned defence and aerospace
contractor.

Interviewed for the BBC Africa Business Report, Ivor
Ichikowitz said that: "The world has finally discovered that South Africa has
some of the best technologies at affordable prices."

The BBC Africa Business Report highlighted Paramount Group's
sales growth, rising by a quarter year-on-year since 2005, boosted by exports
to overseas markets including the Middle East and Central Asia.

The BBC filmed the company's latest range of mine protected
vehicles (MPVs) and armoured personnel carriers at a specially designed test
track outside Pretoria.

Since the end of the Cold War total global military spending has fallen
by 35%, but spending in sub-Saharan Arica has risen by almost a third in the
same period with spending on military hardware in Uganda almost doubling
between 1997-98.

Paramount Group's production of mine-protected vehicles and
military hardware for peacekeeping missions around the world helps to provide
stabilisation in areas of conflict and creates skilled employment
opportunities.

Ivor Ichikowitz said: "We have an amazing skills base, we are
home to some of the best engineers in the world, and those engineers have
gone on to develop technologies which are being used globally and save lives
every day."

Aiding the development of African countries is a key factor in
Paramount Group's work and Ivor Ichikowitz believes that: "The defence and
aerospace sector is an asset of the continent, and my vision has always been
to see how we can use that as a mechanism to contribute to the development of
other countries in Africa, and that is exactly what our group is doing every
single day."

The BBC Africa Business Report indicated that Africa's defence
industry could become the Continent's top earner through global equipment
sales.

Ivor Ichikowitz concluded: "From an African point of view,
this defence is an African competence."

Paramount Group is a major shareholder in Aerosud, South
Africa's leading privately-owned aeronautical engineering company, which
manufacturers and supplies parts for the Airbus A380, the A400M military
transport aircraft and Boeing. The company has also re-engineered the Mirage
F1 fighter.

For the full BBC story visit:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10352001.stm

Media Contact: Stuart Disbrey, +44(0)20-7861-2495 / +44(0)7789-500465, sdisbrey at bell-pottinger.co.uk; Viv Jemmett, +44(0)20-7861-2443 / +44(0)7929-565-349, vjemmett at bell-pottinger.co.uk