Erste Group receives award for best investor relations in Austria

With the granting of this award, more than 700 international analysts and portfolio managers acknowledged the excellent quality of the Austrian banking group's IR activities and voted Erste Group into first place ahead of the other nominees - Andritz, OMV and Telekom Austria Group.

"In the current economic environment, an active and transparent communications policy for capital markets is more important than ever - we have therefore made it our highest priority to provide a comprehensive and timely information service for our shareholders. We are all the more pleased that our efforts have been acknowledged by such well-known international financial markets experts at a time like this," commented Gabriele Werzer, Head of Investor Relations for Erste Group. She went on to say: "This success was made possible thanks to the close collaboration with our colleagues throughout the Erste Group subsidaries."

The award is based on the results of a survey of more than 700 analysts and portfolio managers, who were asked in telephone interviews of some 15 - 20 minute duration about the quality of the investor relations work carried out by European enterprises. One of the main criteria, alongside the reliability and transparency of the information supplied, was also the handling of the new challenges in the context of the current financial markets environment. The results of the study have been published in the "Investor Perception Study, UK & Continental Europe 2009".