May 29, 2007

DT&T has acted as First Investment Bank’s counsel on its EUR 90 million IPO - the biggest and the first Bulgarian combined offering of new and existing shares. Also, DT&T has provided advice on some aspects related to the EUR 31.7 million IPO of Kaolin

Early summer has been rather hot for Bulgarian equity market: 2 banks and a mining company went public attracting huge interest from local and international investors: the EUR 90 million IPO of First Investment Bank was oversubscribed 6 times and the IPO of Kaolin nearly 3 times.

In the First Investment Bank’s offering, which has been organized and managed by the leading Bulgarian broker/dealer First Financial Brokerage House, 16.5 million shares of the Bank have been allocated to more than 3 300 investors. Foreign investors have acquired 52% of the offer shares and 67% of the Bank shares have been acquired by institutional investors. In the EUR 31.7 million IPO of Kaolin, with lead manager UniCredit Bulbank, foreign investors have acquired 53% of the shares and, respectively, 82 % of the shares have been acquired by institutional investors.

First Investment Bank is one of the top ten private sector banks in Bulgaria. As of 31 December 2006, according to data compiled by BNB, the Bank ranked fifth amongst Bulgarian banks as measured by total assets (BGN 3,148 million), fourth as measured by loan portfolio (BGN 1,755 million) and sixth as measured by total deposits from non-financial institutions (BGN 1,660 million). In 2006 the Bank ranked tenth in terms of net profits (BGN 29 million) and eight in terms of shareholders’ equity. The Bank’s current long-term rating is Ba3/Positive outlook (Moody’s) and BB−/Positive outlook (Fitch).

Kaolin is the biggest producer of industrial minerals in South-eastern Europe; its main activity is mining and processing kaolin, quartz sand, clays, chamotte, marlstone, feldspar, dolomite, ceramic dust, etc. The Kaolin group comprises 9 companies, 34 mines and 10 factories for processing industrial minerals, located in Bulgaria, Serbia, Rumania, and Ukraine. The factory exploits specific deposits of kaolin, quartz sand, and other industrial minerals, which are the only such deposits in Bulgaria.