Statement - 9th September 2011, Basingstoke England

Cobalt Holdings Announces Closure of North American Phone Parking Operations

Cobalt Holdings, the organisation behind the RingGo Phone parking brand, today announced the closure of its North American operations. The shut-down of the Florida based company reflects Cobalt Holdings desire to refocus resources in the light of the market conditions that are developing in North America. There will be no effect whatsoever on the UK operations of RingGo phone parking. The UK activities remain entirely separate and will continue to be managed through Cobalt Telephone Technologies Limited.

"We would greatly like to thank Amie Devero, Managing Director RingGo USA, and her team for their commitment and contribution to establishing an impressive beachhead presence in the US parking market since 2010," said Harry Clarke, for Cobalt Holdings. "Despite that progress, the mobile payment space in which the RingGo brand resides is developing at some speed in a number of territories. Regrettably we no longer felt that the further development of RingGo Inc. to serve the parking needs of US municipalities represents an effective vehicle for our ambitions. Our group focus remains to engage in high growth mobile transaction activities that can deliver the assurance of current or future returns whilst we serve and delight customers today."

RingGo in the UK

RingGo is one of the UK's leading mobile payment brands. First introduced as a means to pay for parking in a Bristol car park in 2005 several million UK customers have since registered to use the service to pay for their casual parking fees. Widely deployed across the UK from Cornwall to Northern Scotland the service allows customers to use their mobile phone to undertake swift transactions that speed up daily life. Organisations that choose to deploy RingGo have the opportunity to make big operational savings too. Cobalt Telephone Technologies, which own the RingGo brand in the UK, has recently been shortlisted for the Fast Growth Business Awards 2011.