Vienna/Banja Luka, 19. January 2007 – Today, Friday, the signing of the contract for the sale of the government-owned 65% of Telekom Srpske to Telekom Srbija took place in the presence of the Prime Ministers of the Republic of Srpska and Serbia, Milorad Dodik and Vojislav Kostunica. The role of Raiffeisen

Investment AG in this privatization was to act as a consultant to the seller, the government of the Republic of Serbia. During this process, which lasted about a year, Raiffeisen Investment was entrusted with the organization of the international tender procedure, which was formally completed with today’s „signing“. Once the anti-trust authority has given its approval, the final „closing“ is expected to take place in the next two to three months.

For Heinz Sernetz, Member of the Executive Board of Raiffeisen Investment AG, this „record-breaking transaction“ was the climax of Raiffeisen consultancy activity on the telecommunications market in Southeast Europe. „The privatization Telekom Srpske is already the fourth of a series of successful consultancy assignments in this market, after Bulgaria’s Mobiltel, Telekom Montenegro and the Serbian mobi63.“ This latest transaction has received great international attention. Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telenor and Telekom Austria expressed interest. Telekom Austria finally lost to Telekom Srbija in the last round. Sernetz holds up the record-breaking sale price of EUR 646 mil., as well as the promise to invest EUR 50 mil., as an achievement for the client. „We have thus achieved a higher rating and multiples than the previous record-holder, the mobi63 transaction.“

Telekom Srpske is the de facto monopolist in the Serbian Republic („Republica Srpska“) and made approx. EUR 180 mil. in revenue in the 2006 fiscal year, with 600,000 mobile and 350,000 fixed network customers.