Management buy-out of KBC Securities Baltic Investment Company

KBC Securities completed the management buy-out of its Latvia based subsidiary KBC Securities Baltic Investment Company (KBCS BIC) with the managing directors Andrei Zadornov and Kirill Jurzditsky. Mr Zadornov and Mr Jurzditsky remain fully committed to growing the business as they have been doing over the last years.

The 41 staff currently employed with KBCS BIC and its subsidiaries will remain with the company. The investor customers will continue to receive the same highly professional service as they did in the past and will not be affected by the buy-out. The impact of the buy-out on the KBC group's earnings and capital is negligible.

In 2007, KBC Securities (KBC's brokerage/equity house) acquired a 51% stake in the Latvian corporate finance specialist Baltic Investment Company, which was later renamed KBC Securities Baltic Investment Company (KBCS BIC).

Baltic Investment Company was founded in 1999 in Riga (Latvia) and currently employs 41 people in its three offices in Kiev, Riga and Moscow. KBCS BIC is one of the leading corporate finance boutiques in the Baltic States, Russia and Ukraine. Its business portfolio is spread evenly across the various regions in which the company operates. KBCS BIC targets midcaps and is a strong player in the financial services, consumer goods and retail, energy, TMT and metal and mining sectors. In the past years, KBCS BIC has diversified into the brokerage business in Ukraine, where it became one of the leading players providing professional services to institutional and retail clients.

About KBC Securities: www.kbcsecurities.com

KBC Securities is the equity house of the KBC group. It has operations across the world, in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. It is active in both the institutional and retail market place.

KBC Securities offers strategic and financial advice together with capital raising and corporate finance solutions for both private and listed companies. Its Securities Services teams caters for clients' brokerage, settlement, clearing and custody needs. KBC Securities is specialised in cash equities, equity derivatives and global convertible bonds. Its equity services include equity research, sales and sales trading, market making, corporate finance and corporate broking.

KBC Securities offers execution and portfolio management services to retail customers through a number of local country trading platforms.