HANFA approves Raiffeisen Croatian Equities and Raiffeisen Emerging Markets fund merger

As a result of the merger, a new open-end equity investment fund under management of Raiffeisen Invest – Raiffeisen Prestige Equity will be created. Unlike Raiffeisen Croatian Equities and Raiffeisen Emerging Markets funds, Raiffeisen Prestige Equity will employ a more flexible strategy, which assumes a wider range of permitted investments. This is a departure from traditional investment strategies which aim at outperforming the return of a selected benchmark, most typically a return on a selected index. The strategy defined in the new manner enables a greater adjustment to the changes in financial markets by investing in such markets which will provide the opportunity of generating positive returns in the given circumstances.

At the time of the merger, the unit value will be determined in accordance with the Ordinance on the procedure, conditions and manner of merging of open-end investment funds, that is by taking over their value, so the unit value of Raiffeisen Prestige Equity Fund will be set at EUR 100 on the day of its establishment. What it means is that, regardless of the change in the total number of units, the product of the number of new units and unit value will remain the same as that before the merger. The units held by current investors in Raiffeisen Croatian Equities and Raiffeisen Emerging Markets funds will be swapped for new Raiffeisen Prestige Equity fund units, with no exit or entry fees charged. Also, in the course of the fund merger, unitholders in the funds being merged will not be bound by the provision on the minimum investment in the new fund.

Despite the fact that the merger is not deemed to constitute the fund entry or exit, so unitholders will be exempted from the payment of entry and exit fee, a Certificate of unit purchase in the new fund will be sent to all unitholders to ensure compliance with the administrative procedure of fund merger and the provisions of the Ordinance.

There will be no redemption charge to the unitholders of Raiffeisen Croatian Equities and Raiffeisen Emerging Markets who wish to exit the said funds before they are merged.

The fund merger will be conducted on 30 December 2011. We invite all unitholders in Raiffeisen Croatian Equities and Raiffeisen Emerging Markets funds to study the content of the Prospectus and Articles of Incorporation of the new Fund.