Trading with Arco Vara shares began on OMX Tallinn Stock Exchange

21.06.2007 TLN

“During the last three years seven new companies have been added to the Estonian stock market, which have all come to the stock exchange from interesting sectors and with different stories. The interest towards the real estate market has been noticeable among the Estonian investors. Arco Vara has made a successful stock exchange debut thanks to the persistence and expanding plans of its leaders and now we have a good indicator of the future of the real estate sector on the stock exchange,” said Andrus Alber, Chairman of the Management Board of Tallinn Stock Exchange.

“It’s an old saying that there are three things that matter in real estate: location, location and location. Looking at the new location of Arco Vara, the Tallinn Stock Exchange and our neighbours here on the list of publicly traded companies, we can say the location is very good. I believe that based on this the potential of the company will also continue to rise,” said Arti Arakas, Chairman of the Management Board of Arco Vara.

During the first day of trading 345 deals were made with Arco Vara shares, the turnover for the day was 117 MEEK (7 MEUR). In the course of stock exchange transactions 3 107 140 shares traded hands on the first day. ARC market capitalization after the first trading day was 2.5 BEEK (161 MEUR).

“The volume of Arco Vara shares on public offering is the third largest in the history of Tallinn Stock Exchange. Foreign investors have also been active traders on the Tallinn Stock Exchange, in addition to locals, thanks to which the number of deals made this year (over 80,000 stock exchange transactions) has exceeded the total number of transactions made last year (2006: 62 889 transactions),” added Alber.

Starting from today, the list of ARC shareholders can be viewed on the e-Register website (www.e-register.ee). Arco Vara has 1 830 shareholders in total and the shares on the open market make up 59% of ARC stock. The majority of Arco Vara shareholders are Estonian residents (1 807 or 52.71%), followed by Latvia and Austria residents 7 (0.57%) and 5 (2.86%) respectively.

Similarly to other companies listed on OMX group stock exchanges, an international GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) classifier, 40403010 (Real Estate Management & Development), effective from June 21st 2007, was awarded to Arco Vara. ARC shares will be added to the Tallinn Stock Exchange general index OMX Tallinn and to the general and sector indexes of Baltic stock exchanges from June 22, 2007.

Arco Vara AS is a leading real estate company in the Baltic States that was established in 1992 in Estonia. Its business includes the broking, developing and construction of real estate. The company has offices in 25 cities throughout Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania. There were a total of 546 people working in the group and its joint companies at the end of the first quarter. The audited consolidated turnover of Arco Vara in 2006 was 484 MEEK and the profit of the group was 217 MEEK.

The main organizer of the public offering of Arco Vara shares was SEB Enskilda.

During the next week all interested parties can monitor the trading information of ARC shares live on the website: http://arcovara.omxgroup.ee. The trading information will be shown on the Baltic market information web page with a 15-minute delay, as usual.