Plaintree Makes Private Placement

OTTAWA -- Plaintree Systems Inc. ("Plaintree"), a developer and manufacturer of Free Space Optical communications products, is pleased to announce that it has completed a private placement financing with Targa Group Inc. ("Targa") of 3,911,765 units of Plaintree (each, a "Unit" and collectively, the "Units") at a subscription price of $0.34 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,330,000 in Canadian funds (the "Financing"). This completes the financing previously announced by Plaintree on December 21, 2001. The Financing, which was completed in two separate tranches on December 28, 2001 and January 8, 2002, received conditional regulatory approval on December 21, 2001. Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share of Plaintree (each a "Common Share") and one warrant (each a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.51 per Common Share for a period of three years from the closing date on which the related Warrant was issued. The Financing was completed by Plaintree without the use of an agent and Plaintree has not undertaken to qualify any of the securities being offered pursuant to the Financing. Targa is a principal shareholder of Plaintree and, assuming the issuance of the Common Shares comprising the Units but without taking into account the exercise of any Warrants, currently holds 35,248,260 Common Shares representing approximately 39.18% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares. Plaintree Systems Inc.