Company News

The winners of the primary professional prize of the Russian web space, ROTOR, have been picked. The prize was established in 1999 and the contest is conducted by the International Union of Internet Professionals EzhE that unites more than 500 famous internet personalities.

Based on the results of the ROTOR 2009 competition a number of projects executed by companies that are controlled by Finam Investment Holding received high ratings. Specifically, news network SMI2 (http://smi2.ru) was named among the Top 3 winners in the category “News Site of the Year”, while the Voobrazhala web site (http://voobrazhala.ru/) was named the “Best Online Store of the Year”, leaving its rivals far behind. Both of these projects were implemented by interactive creative agency E-generator.

Runet professionals also gave Finam’s investment activity the thumbs up, as the holding’s board chairman Victor Remsha was a finalist in the category “Investor of the Year”.

On May 21 an award ceremony of the Elite of the Stock Market contest was held. Finam Investment Holding was declared the winner in the category “Company of Services for Individual Investors”. Furthermore, Finam’s activity was highly rated by stock market participants in a number of other categories. Specifically, the holding was among the nominees for awards in the following categories: “Company of the Futures Market”, “Stock Market Company”, “Best Trader Division”, etc. NAUFOR has held the Elite of the Stock Market contest since 2000. Its participants and winners are professional stock market participants that have made the greatest contributions to various areas of the stock market business. Nominees for the award are appointed by the professional community and the National Jury decides the winners. “We’re truly honored to have won this major contest of the Russian investment business. Finam is the unrivalled leader in household operations with the biggest base of active clients in Russia. We have always focused on offering high quality and prompt services, creating new opportunities and rolling out advanced technologies. To a certain extent, for several years already Finam has been forging industry standards for the entire market. Winning the Elite contest once again stands as a testimonial to our achievements. It’s noteworthy that the award was given to the entire holding, which also underscores the quality of operations conducted by Bank Finam and Finam Management,” Finam general director Igor Stepanyan says.

SuperJob.ru, a leading recruitment web portal in Russia, released the results of a survey conducted last year among direct employers. Given the results, Finam was announced “Attractive Employer of 2008”.

“The title “Attractive Employer of 2008”, assigned to Finam, underscores major trust of job seekers and, consequently, is a recognition of a promising and transparent company with a stable market position,” research center SuperJob.ru notes.

RBC Rating provided a ranking of Russia’s biggest brokerages in 2008. Finam, as in 2007, was announced the winner. According to the agency, trades executed through the investment company on MICEX and RTS totaled USD 105.79 bn last year or 13% more than the figure of its nearest rival.

Webscan Technologies published a rating of Top 100 Most Mentioned Brands of 2008 in Russian Web Space. Finam managed to substantially bolster its positions, rising from 47th to 17th place. As of January 1, 2009 the investment holding’s brand was named second by media citations among all Russian financial companies, trailing only VTB.

Established in 2000, Webscan Technologies is a leading player in the sector of software development, providing services and elaborating Internet technologies designed to search and monitor information. Since 2000 the company has executed its own large-scale project aimed at rating brands most mentioned in the Russian-language segment. It should be noted that more than 1,200 respectable web sites are monitored under this project. To make the rating more unbiased, corporate websites and specialized projects are not subject to monitoring.

Finam Investment Company received a prize as part of the Financial Elite of Russia award. The jury named Finam the Best Company of the Year in the category "Stock Market".

Based on the 2007 performance, Finam became No. 1 brokerage in Russia, with its aggregate securities turnover topping RUB 7 tn. The investment company formed the biggest regional network in the sector, covering 90 Russian cities. The company's growth rate, the focus on promotion of new services, the quality of services and activities to draw attention of ordinary people to stock market instruments were appreciated by experts, which led to the prestigious award.

Finam was awarded the Financial Elite of Russia award for the third time. In 2006 the investment company got the prize as the most client-driven investment company and Finam Investment Bank was named the "Discovery of the Year" in 2007.

The Financial Elite of Russia award was provided for the first time in 2005. The award presents the opinions of leading Russian economists and finance professionals and representatives of the relevant media. This program is carried out on the basis of expert and advisory support from the Russian Audit Chamber, the Russian Finance Ministry, the Central Bank of Russia, the Association of Regional Banks of Russia, the National League of Managers, Rosleasing, ACI Russia, rating agency Expert RA and the National Rating Agency.

An international brokerage department was formed within Finam Investment Holding. The new division will focus on providing domestic investors with access to foreign trading floors and also the FX market. Furthermore, it will sell Russian financial products to Western investors. Arsen Aivazov, who earlier headed up Finam Investment Company's front office, was appointed director of the new department. Arsen Aivazov was born in 1971. He graduated from the Moscow Humanities University with the degree of economist and studied German at the Goethe-Institut in Berlin. He holds qualification certificates (1.0, 5.0 and 4.0) issued by the Federal Securities Service. Before joining Finam he worked as head of the custody department at investment company Olma, deputy head of the customer service department at Vika and head of the client service department at Dialog-Optim. In June 2005 he held the position of front office director at Finam.

The formation of the new business unit was driven by the intensive promotion of Finam's services relating to access to international financial markets. At issue are both the forex market and foreign exchanges. Currently, Finam's clients can execute transactions on all main trading floors in America and Europe. In addition, the department will be in charge of dealing with foreign investors who are interested in sinking funds into Russian assets. At the end of 2007 Finam announced the launch of brokerage services for Japanese clients. Japan's investment company Aruji Gate Securities Inc acts as the company's partner. The short-term plan is to break onto the German market. The international brokerage department will not be only involved in client services, but also in working out new services for them. Specifically, it will oversee the development of special versions of trading platforms to meet investor needs, offerf training courses (in cooperation with Training Center Finam), prepare market research reports and establish deeper relations with foreign stock exchanges. "Favorable market conditions have arisen, which allow Russian investment companies to move towards a new quality plateau. On the one hand, greater expertise of Russian investors is raising their interest in operations on global markets. On the other hand, Russian financial instruments remain attractive to foreigners. By streamlining its international operations, rolling out new services and widening the list of its foreign partners, Finam is looking to turn into a global broker" – Aivazov noted.

PR and Media Service, Finam Investment Holding

Management company Finam Management, which is part of Finam Investment Holding, hereby announces the results achieved in managing close-ended mutual funds in March and the first quarter of 2008. During this period, close-ended mutual funds delivered improvements in NAV and fund unit figures. In the face of a falling market these funds turned out to be efficient capital saving instruments. The highest returns in March were achieved by real estate mutual fund Finam – Capital Investments, whose NAV and fund units spiked 6.54% in March, up 7.7% in the quarter and 24.2% over the past six months. At the same time, in the January-March quarter the RTS Index declined 10% and since last September it has corrected down roughly 1%. The value of Finam – Capital Investments fund units grew primarily following a spike in the value of the assets it owns, specifically, agricultural lands in Russia's southern regions. "The slump on the Russian equity market is mainly driven by conditions on external markets. Land assets are exposed to these conditions to a certain extent. They represent a stable and strong instrument growing in value against the backdrop of rising demand for food in Russia and worldwide. What's more, agricultural lands generate profits from lease of around 15-20%" – director of Finam Management's real estate department Alexey Garyunov said.

Venture investments fund Finam – Information Technologies reported a 3.82% increase in the value of fund units and NAV in March. In the first quarter of 2008 its fund units returned 3.72%. "Currently, Finam – Information Technologies assets are valued quite conservatively. Given the expansion of Russia's Internet business and rising earnings of the companies in which the close-ended mutual fund holds shares and stakes, we expect fund units rise sharply by the end of the year, providing investors with handsome returns on their capital" – general director of Finam Management Andrey Shulga said.

In his opinion, in terms of investment appeal close-ended mutual funds are approaching open-ended mutual funds as their fund units trade on exchanges. Specifically, Finam Investment Holding is carrying out a program aimed at maintaining the liquidity of its mutual funds on MICEX. Investors holding their fund units can sell at any time these assets at a price close to that determined by the management company.

PR and Media Service, Finam Investment Holding

On February 1, 2008 management company Finam Management, part of Finam Investment Holding, is to launch three new mutual funds: Finam Oil&Gas, Finam Power Utilities and Finam Metals. These mutual funds will be sector-focused, broadening the range of products offered by the management company to investors. The formation of the new funds is scheduled for completion on April 30 or earlier when the assets of each fund equal RUB 10 mn. These mutual funds target the largest possible group of investors. RUB 3,000 is enough to become a unit holder. At a later time the minimum amount for investors who already purchased fund units of respective funds will be reduced to RUB 1,000. ntends to invest client resources primarily in common and preferred shares of Russian businesses that engage in oil and gas extraction, processing and transportation activities. It is expected to add to the fund's portfolio not only blue chips, but also the most promising second-tiers, i.e. shares in petrochemical concerns. Open-ended mutual fund Finam Metals will be parking investors' cash mainly into the securities of companies that extract and process ferrous and non-ferrous metals, coal, produce steel and also manufacturing equipment, automobiles, aircraft, etc. Thus, the fund will be able to pursue quite a flexible strategy, investing only in metal stocks when market conditions deteriorate and picking up engineering shares when metal product prices are in decline. Finam Power Utilities is to target securities of Russian concerns that generate, transmit, distribute and sell electric and thermal power. Among the most attractive stocks of the sector that are to be added to the portfolio of Finam's new mutual fund are assets that represent the thermal power generation sector, whose performance is to a large extent related to the keen interest of strategic investors in the relevant companies and also distribution grids. Representatives of Finam Management believe that sector-focused mutual funds will be of interest to investors both in and of themselves and as an instrument to diversify their investment portfolios. Specialized funds make it possible to invest funds in one industry or another as a whole, which lowers the risk of losses when one or several stocks of a relevant sector are picked. Investors will also have the opportunity to convert free of charge fund units of the new funds, including by means of a special online service. "By launching sector-focused mutual funds we'll bring the total number of our mutual funds to 11, with 8 of them classifiable as open-ended. This means that the mix of the investment products offered by Finam Management will be able to meet demands of virtually any investor. All innovations made by Finam's analysts will be used when forming the new funds, which gives reason to expect dynamic growth in the value of fund units" – Finam Management's executive director Andrey Shulga says. Public and Media Service, Finam Investment Holding

Finam Investment Company has become the first Russian company to provide Japanese investors with online trading solutions on the Russian market. Aruji Gate Securities Inc. acts as Finam’s partner in Japan. At present, Japanese investors can execute transactions on MICEX Stock Exchange using a special version of Finam Web-Trade online trading system.

The project to roll out online trading in Russian stocks kicked off in Japan on January 17 when the first deal was struck to acquire Gazprom shares using the Japanese version of Finam Web-Trade. Finam’s entry into the Japanese market opens a wealth of new opportunities for Russian issuers whose shares are now available to the widest group of investors from Japan, the world’s second largest economy.

Japanese brokerage company Aruji Gate Securities Inc. is a subsidiary of Aruji Group. The core activity conducted by Aruji Gate is to provide brokerage services to Japanese investors who trade on the Russian securities market. Finam Web-Trade is an advanced online trading platform that makes it possible to execute transactions without installing special software products from any PC with Internet connection. Apart from stock trading the system allows users to check their trading accounts and place stop-loss orders. The system was translated into Japanese for Japanese investors.

Investing activities on the Japanese stock market is part of Finam’s global strategy geared towards breaking onto international capital markets. In Japan, Finam tested for the first time a new procedure for dealing with foreign partners that focuses on online trading in Russian securities, both blue chips and second-tier names. Longer term, the plan is to offer this service in other countries.

Finam’s strategic target is to form a pool of foreign investors, roll out and maintain mutually beneficial relations with Western investment banks and implement joint corporate finance projects. Finam has established quite an interesting asset portfolio that could be of interest to foreign investors.

“This trading system is one of a kind: no direct access to the Russian securities market has ever been available in Japan. As a matter of fact, we have created a unique trading platform on the Japanese market. We’ve gained a reliable partner in Arugi Group on the Japanese brokerage market and will strive to promote our services. Currently, under discussion is the further implementation of cooperation projects, namely asset and management consulting and also the sale of fund units in the mutual funds run by Finam Management, which will make us No. 1 broker among Japanese investors” – says head of Finam Investment Company’s Foreign Investor Relations Department Grigory Yudashkin.

Public and Media Relations Department, Finam Investment CompanyVladislav Kochetkov (Kochetkov@finam.ru). Telephone: +7 (495) 969 59 58.