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Charles Demoulin becomes Partner Deminor

The Deminor partners are pleased to announce you that Charles Demoulin has joined their partnership.

Charles will be mainly in charge of shareholder engagements on behalf of investors in listed companies.

Together with the other directors of the Governance Platform, Charles will actively participate in the execution of engagements with European listed companies on behalf of the Platform's members. Charles was appointed as director of the Governance Platform in November 2007.

He will also be responsible for the shareholder engagements on behalf of the Deminor Active Governance Fund (DAGF), as well as for legal and compliance functions with the DAGF.

Charles' areas of expertise include company law, takeovers and corporate governance at both national and European levels. He will supervise Deminor's contributions to the legislative works and public consultations of national and European institutions.

Before joining Deminor in 1999, Charles had spent two years as a lawyer with the Brussels office of Loeff Claeys Verbeke (Allen & Overy Belgium).

Charles was born in 1973. He holds a Master of Laws from the Université Catholique de Louvain and a postgraduate in Corporate Finance from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Contact: Mr. Pierre Nothomb, Partner

Tel: + 32 (0)2 674 71 10

Email: pierre.nothomb@deminor.com

Websites:

www.deminor.com

www.governanceplatform.com

www.dagfund.com

About Deminor

Deminor is the leading European company focusing on services to investors in Continental-European companies. Our service offering comprises corporate finance, corporate governance & engagement, damage/asset recovery and focused asset management services.

Through our local offices, we are active in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Switzerland. We cover other markets such as Germany from our Brussels office.

Deminor's services cover both listed companies and non-listed (privately-held) companies.

Services to investors in privately held companies

Deminor helps investors in non-listed companies and privately held listed companies to manage their minority stakes. Deminor is the only European company offering a one-stop service to minority investors, ranging from business valuations, legal and governance analysis to negotiating shareholder agreements or complex corporate finance transactions.

Services to institutional investors

Deminor offers focused corporate governance services to institutional investors, helping them to better understand the governance structure of the companies in which they invest and, whenever there are contentious issues, to actively engage with portfolio companies in order to obtain improvements. Engagements can be done on a tailor-made basis or through the Governance Platform.

Deminor also helps institutional investors to recover losses resulting from corporate wrongdoing, misrepresentation or fraud, both in Europe and the United States. Deminor's services are fully comprehensive and allow institutional investors to fully outsource their litigation management and fulfil their fiduciary duty while focusing on their investment activity.

Damage recovery for private investors

Deminor brings together large groups of private investors and set up collective actions. Deminor has successfully defended large groups of private investors in various high-profile European securities actions.

Focused asset management for private and institutional investors

Deminor offers investors the unique opportunity to benefit from value creation resulting from governance change through the Deminor Active Governance Fund (DAGF). DAGF invests in undervalued listed companies with governance weaknesses with the aim of unlocking value through governance change

Deminor launches The Deminor Active Governance Fund

On November 2nd, 2006, Deminor launched the Deminor Active Governance Fund, a fund aimed at creating shareholder value through governance improvements.

For more information about DAGF, please click on the link below.

Deminor Active Governance Fund

Handelsblatt: a portrait of Deminor "Im Auftrag des kleinen Aktionärs"

A reporter of Handelsblatt has visited Deminor and were impressed...

Please choose "German" as language in order to read this article.

Madoff: Deminor Client win summary court proceeding against HSBC and Bank Medici

On April, 2, 2009, the Luxembourg Tribunal d'Arrondissement ordered Herald Lux, a Luxembourg based UCITS compliant investment fund (SICAV), and its service providers to release important contracts entered into between the Fund and its service providers as well as the contracts entered into between HSBC and Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS). HSBC had persistently refused to release the documents, by disputing (among others) Deminor's clients' capacity to act as investors in the Fund. The judgement is the first court decision granting investors relief against HSBC and Bank Medici AG in relation to an investment fund with exposure to the Madoff scandal.

Following Deminor's successful summary proceedings against Luxalpha and UBS in March 2009, some of Deminor's clients filed a similar summary proceeding against Herald Lux, HSBC and Bank Medici AG. The law suit was triggered by HSBC's failure to disclose any information during Deminor's company visit of February 4th, 2009, in breach of HSBC's obligations set forth in the Fund's sales prospectus.

Deminor considers this court victory as important in order to assess the liability of the custodian, the investment manager and auditor of Herald Lux in connection with the losses suffered on fund assets entrusted to BMIS. As set out during its press presentation of February 4th, 2009 (available on Deminor's web site), Deminor believes that HSBC and Bank Medici have failed to comply with their obligations under Luxembourg law in their capacity as custodian and portfolio manager of the Fund. More in particular, HSBC and Bank Medici AG failed to put the necessary control mechanisms and contractual safeguards in place when delegating their functions to BMIS. The documents that the Court ordered the defendants to produce may shed more light on the manner in which HSBC and Bank Medici AG performed or, rather, failed to perform their duties.

Deminor also wrote a letter to the CSSF, asking it to inform the public about the result of its investigations conducted in relation to Herald Lux and HSBC/Bank Medici AG and to impose sanctions against the various service providers who failed to perform their duties. Deminor's letter to the CSSF is also available on its web site.

In response to the court decision, Erik Bomans, a Deminor partner, said : "It is stunning to see how banks like HSBC and UBS, which earned hundreds of millions of commissions for many years on Madoff related funds, use all possible means to withhold the most basic information from investors and even refuse to recognize the very existence of their claim. We welcome the court decision as a sign that the Luxembourg courts are taking investors' claims seriously and will give them access to information and justice when trying to seek recovery for their losses. We call upon all investors to join their forces and to form a syndicate with the aim of recovering their losses from the banks and financial institutions who failed to perform their duties".

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Contact person:

Erik Bomans
Deminor International SCRL
Avenue Edm van Nieuwenhuyselaan 6 b. 8.
1160 Brussels (Belgium)
Tel. : + 32.2.674.71.10
erik.bomans@deminor.com

Deminor reacts to the public consultation on the Belgian Corporate Governance Code

Please find here below the reaction of Deminor to the public consultation on the Belgian Corporate Governance Code organized by the Corporate Governance Committee

Lehman Brothers - Message in the German magazine "Wirtschaftswoche"

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Lehman Brothers - Webcast

During this presentation, Deminor will comment its analysis and the concrete actions for investors who bought financial products of Lehman Brothers through Belgian Citibank and Deutsche Bank.

If you wish to follow the press conference through the webcast, please click on the link below and introduce your name and email address to enter it.

http://pulse.companywebcast.nl/Playerv1_0/default.aspx?id=2211

Lehman Brothers Treasury Co. B.V

Please choose "Italian" as language in order to read the article.

Deminor announces the filing of a law suit against Luxalpha and various UBS entitiesDeminor announces the filing of a law suit against Luxalpha and various UBS entities

Luxalpha and the UBS entities have been sued in summary proceedings to produce certain materially important information. Please click here for more information.

Please find below a copy of our press release.

Madoff: webcast and press conference

Please click on the link below to follow our press conference through webcast:

http://pulse.companywebcast.nl/Playerv1_0/default.aspx?id=2149

Please find below the slides of the press conference.

Deminor reacts to the CSSF statement regarding Luxalpha / UBS and to UBS's reply

Deminor asks UBS to pay damages to all investors in funds with Madoff exposure for which UBS entities have acted as investment manager and/or depositary. Deminor addresses a letter to the CSSF requesting more transparency and sanctions against the depositaries, investment managers and auditors of Luxalpha, Luxembourg Investment Fund and Herald (Lux) (the "Funds"). Please find below a copy of our press release and of the letter to the CSSF.

The letter is only available in French.

Deminor clients win their summary proceeding against Luxalpha and UBS

The Tribunal d'Arrondissement of Luxembourg has decided on March 4, 2009 that Luxalpha and UBS release certain important documents to the plaintiffs, investors in Luxalpha advised by Deminor. More in particular, these documents are the contracts entered into between UBS and Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS) and the yearly auditor's report on the inner functioning of Luxalpha.

Deminor will file a similar law suit against Herald (lux) and HSBC in the next few days.

Please find below our press release of March 5, 2009.

Madoff - Message about Deminor in the German newspaper "FAZ" - 120109

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Madoff - Message about Deminor in the German newspaper "Zeit"

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Madoff - Message about Deminor in the German newspaper "FAZ"-090109

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Madoff - Message about Deminor in the German newspaper "Das Welt"

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Madoff - Message from Gewinn

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Deminor is grouping European shareholders of UBS

Following the release by UBS of its 2007 year end results, Deminor started grouping investors in UBS with a view to defending their interests.

Deminor believes that the UBS management has recklessly changed UBS' risk profile over the last couple of years, without duly informing its investors about the change. In addition, when it became clear to the management of UBS that this new policy would have disastrous results and would lead to massive write-downs, the UBS management has again not timely informed investors. Finally, the UBS management is, as a result of these circumstances, proposing to recapitalise the bank without giving existing investors the opportunity to subscribe nor any protection against the ensuing dilution.

Please contact us through the registration form on this web site if you are a UBS investor and if you're interested in joining our initiative. We will open a public case for small private investors through this web site depending on the number of investors joining.

The Austrian magazine "Gewinn" publishes some news about Deminor

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

UBS has to supply some documents about the Madoff fund.

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

The initiators of the alternative plan for Fortis request a public debate

Please choose "French" or "Dutch" as language in order to read the article.

Several investors advised by Deminor assigned ING Belgium

Several (old) customers of Bank BBL (ING Belgium) assigned ING to recover the losses which they underwent on products.

Please choose "French" or "Dutch" in order to read the article.

Deminor participates to the 2008 BNB shareholder meeting

Every year, Deminor participates to the shareholder meeting of the National Bank of Belgium in the framework of the mandate received from its clients. Deminor's clients are dissatisfied with the treatment by the National Bank of its shareholders' rights.

Deminor has filed its list of questions with the National Bank in order to allow the Bank to prepare clear answers. Unfortunately, some of the questions that were asked in the past have not received clear answers, which forces us to ask these questions once again.

For more information about the BNB case, please visit the "damage recovery" section of this web site and click on BNB.

Press release: Deminor vs Suez/Electrabel

Please choose "French" of "Dutch" as language in order to read the article.

Lehman Brothers product: Deminor analyse banking consultations

Please choose "German" as language in order to read the article.

Lehman Brothers-Press release

Deminor is forming a European Creditor Committee with the objective of representing European Lehman Brothers creditors and recovering their assets from Lehman Brother's restructuring and from financial intermediaries who distributed Lehman Brothers' financial instruments in Europe.

Over the last couple of years, Lehman Brothers Treasury Co. B.V issued bonds and structured products in various European countries for an estimated total amount of 34 billions USD. These bonds and products were unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by its parent company Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Following Lehman Brothers' Holdings Inc. financial troubles, both the parent company and its European subsidiary were granted protection against their creditors on September 15 and September 19, respectively. As a result, many investors who had purchased these Lehman Brothers bonds and structured products are currently exposed to substantial losses on a pan-European scale.

Following the suspension of payments, numerous investors in Lehman Brothers products contacted Deminor with the request of federating Lehman Brothers European creditors and assisting them to recover their losses.

Many of the financial instruments issued by Lehman Brothers were placed with retail investors through the networks of European retail banks. The Lehman Brothers financial instruments were repackaged as traditional savings or insurance products of the European retail banks and were not sold as corporate bonds with risk exposure to a highly leveraged American investment bank. In many cases, the European banks seem to have made misrepresentations about the risk profile and guarantees attached to these instruments when promoting them with their retail clients. In various cases reported to Deminor, basic rules relating to risk spreading have not been observed. Moreover, the banks have not kept their clients informed about the worsening risk profile of Lehman Brothers throughout 2007 and 2008. European-wide MiFid rules seem to have been violated on a massive scale.

Deminor will group European bondholders and owners of structured products (including insurance products) issued by Lehman Brothers Treasury Co. B.V. Deminor will start immediate action in order to safeguard and protect the rights of these investors within the framework of the insolvency proceedings of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co. B.V. in the Netherlands and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in the USA. Deminor will also file actions against those intermediaries who have distributed bonds and structured products on the European market and have failed to comply with MiFid requirements. Investors can register on-line and input their transaction data through Deminor's web site.

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Contact Person:

Erik Bomans
Tel. : +32.2.674.71.10

About Deminor

Deminor is a company specialising in investor protection services for European investors. Throughout its local offices in various European countries, Deminor assists investors in protecting their rights and recovering their assets. Deminor also offers corporate governance and active engagement services to institutional investors. It manages a focused corporate governance fund (DAGF) on behalf of private and institutional investors. It offers corporate finance services to minority shareholders in non-listed companies. For more information about our services and pending cases, please visit our web site www.deminor.com.

KBC Bank and Deminor reach amicable agreement on CDOs

Brussels, 17 September 2009

Through an open and constructive dialogue, KBC Bank and Deminor have reached an amicable settlement in relation to the markdowns incurred by Deminor clients on CDOs sold by KBC Bank. The some 40 private banking clients and companies represented by Deminor have unanimously accepted KBC Bank's proposal, thus definitively closing the settlement case opened by Deminor in February 2009.

The group of Deminor clients had invested in various CDOs sold by KBC, primarily the junior or investor tranches that were marked down on account of the credit crisis. KBC Bank and Deminor started negotiations in March 2009 and reached an agreement in principle in August. The compensation offered varies depending on the specific facts of each case. Deminor's clients unanimously accepted the agreement at the start of September.

In reaching agreement, KBC and the group of Deminor clients have brought closure to the dispute. Both parties will refrain from any further comment on the contents of the settlements involved. Furthermore, Deminor will not represent any other clients in cases relating to CDO investments sold by KBC.

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Contacts:

KBC Bank:
Viviane Huybrecht, General Manager Group Communication/Company Spokesperson KBC Group
pressofficekbc@kbc.be
Tel.: + 32-2-429.85.45

Deminor:

Erik Bomans (Partner)
erik.bomans@deminor.com
Tel.: + 32-2-674.71.10

Stefan Hertogs (Senior Associate)
stefan.hertogs@deminor.com
Tel.: + 32-2-674.71.10

Deminor webcast: Status of the Madoff Case

This webcast will be online on Tuesday October 20, 2009 at 10:30 AM.

Go to the webcast "Deminor: status of the Madoff case"

More than 9% of the capital of Carrere has retained Deminor

Please choose "French" as language in order to read the press release.

BNB - Action for annulment of the law of 3 April 2009

Deminor and several private shareholders of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) have instituted an action for the annulment of the law of 3 April 2009. This law radically modifies the rules governing the distribution of revenues and profits of the NBB in order to improve the financial position of the Belgian State to the detriment of the private shareholders of the NBB.

With this law, the Belgian State unilaterally imposes fundamental changes to basic principles that have been governing the partnership between the Belgian State and the private shareholders with respect to the NBB. Those rules had been in place for several decades. They are the cornerstone of this partnership.

The Council of State had already raised the question as to whether the new mechanism established by the law of 3 April 2009 would adequately remunerate the special situation of the State both with respect to the National Bank and within the NBB, without granting any excessive advantage to the State as compared to the other shareholders of the Bank. Unfortunately, the Belgian government did not give enough time to the Council of State to further investigate this essential aspect of the law. Based on their own analysis of the law, Deminor and its lawyers come to the conclusion that this law actually grants excessive and disproportionate advantages to the Belgian State to the detriment of the private shareholders of the Bank. This leads to a breach (expropriation) of legitimate and fundamental rights of the private shareholders. Other violations of basic constitutional principles in Belgium and of provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community have been identified which justify the annulment of the law.

The law of 3 April 2009 also provides for a serious violation of the voting rights of the private shareholders of the Bank. The law has unilaterally imposed an amendment to the articles of association of the NBB while such amendment should have been submitted to all shareholders' approval.

Deminor and its clients are resolute in fighting against the violations of their legitimate rights by the Belgian State - of which the law of 3 April 2009 is the last manifestation - with the objective for the State to appropriate as much profits and reserves from the NBB as possible to the detriment of the other shareholders of the Bank.

For the action for annulment of the law, Deminor and its clients will be advised by Mr Pierre de Bandt and Mr Muriel Vanderhelst, from the law firm De Bandt Keustermans & Van den Brande.

* * *

Personne de contact :
Charles Demoulin
Tel.: +32 2 674 71 10
E-Mail: charles.demoulin@deminor.com

Natixis - Deminor writes to Mr François Pérol, President of the BCPE

Please choose "French" as language in order to read the letter.

Joost J.Kramer (29) has been appointed as new Manager of Deminor Nederland

Amsterdam, Tuesday 1 December 2009 - As from 1 December 2009, Mr Joost J. Kramer (29) has been appointed as new manager of Deminor Nederland. Joost Kramer is an experienced lawyer with an MSc in Management of the University of Nyenrode. He has been a lawyer for three years with Houthoff Buruma N.V. and consequently corporate counsel with Koninklijke Ahold N.V.

Joost Kramer will coordinate and develop different activities of Deminor in the Netherlands together with Bernard Thuysbaert, partner of Deminor International and director of Deminor Nederland.

Deminor has the ambition to further expand its activities and team in the Netherlands considering the increasing number of mandates regarding:

(i) Advise on questions of shareholders of non-listed companies,

(ii) Corporate governance research and engagement assistance of listed companies, and

(iii) Collective damage claims of investors.

Mr Otto B. Linker (58), who was appointed in March as director ad interim and recently resigned, will keep supporting Deminor in the Netherlands as an ‘of counsel' advisor.

Persons of contact:

Deminor Nederland (Amsterdam):

Joost Kramer
Manager Deminor Nederland
Tel. + 31 (0)20 3012 340
Email: joost.kramer@deminor.com

Bernard Thuysbaert
Director Deminor Nederland
Tel. + 32 475 366 382
Email: bernard.thuysbaert@deminor.com

Websites:
www.deminor.com
www.governanceplatform.com
www.dagfund.com

Download:

Deminor Press Release Joost J.Kramer (29) has been appointed as new Manager of Deminor Nederland

One Year post Madoff

One year after the Madoff scandal was revealed, European investors have formed a pan-European syndicate aimed at recovering their losses suffered on funds with Madoff exposure. Deminor's analysis demonstrates that the Madoff feeder funds have been set up in breach of European rules, that investors have been misled and that the service providers failed to perform their contractual and legal duties. More than ever, Deminor's clients are determined to recover their losses from the responsible institutions. Investors cannot rely on actions undertaken by third parties, such as the US trustee or the funds' liquidators, if they want to benefit from a maximum recovery.

A. An international and diversified syndicate of more than 1.000 investors

As of today, Deminor represents more than 1.000 investors who have invested in the so-called "Madoff feeder-funds". These investors are mainly from Europe (The Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium) and South-America (Argentina and Uruguay). They are individual or institutional investors, representing altogether losses of approximately EUR 400 million. Losses per investor range between EUR 5.000 to EUR 30.000.000.

Erik Bomans, a Deminor partner : "investors must understand the need to join forces in order to form a common representative front against the involved institutions' obstinate refusal to compensate losses despite clear evidence that they breached their legal obligations. We believe that only a collective representative investor action can lead to a successful outcome".

B. Achievements since December 2008 and update of legal analysis

Since December 2008, Deminor has been principally active on the following investment funds whose assets have been entrusted to and managed by Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC ("BMIS"): Luxalpha, Luxinvest, Thybo International, Plaza, Herald Lux, Kingate, Hermes and Fairfield. Court or regulatory actions have been taken in Luxembourg, Monaco and the British Virgin Islands. Proceedings in the Netherlands are being prepared.

Deminor has successfully undertaken pre-trial discovery actions before the Luxembourg courts in order to receive further information on the relationship between the involved financial institutions and BMIS. Documents revealed that Madoff cumulated all important functions and that there was no appropriate control mechanisms put in place by the designated custodians (i.e. UBS and HSBC) on BMIS's activities. Investors have been misled about the true nature of their investments since the prospectus has not mentioned essential information, and the legal guarantees attached to UCITS funds have been breached.

Erik Bomans: "we have serious indications that UBS and/or Ernst and Young have not correctly informed the Luxembourg financial authorities about the delegation of the custody to BMIS, as they were supposed to do in accordance with the Luxembourg regulations. Our analysis indicates that UBS and/or Ernst Young made materially wrong statements to the Luxembourg financial authorities by failing to mention that BMIS was UBS's sub-custodians for the Madoff "feeder funds"".

Following these pre-trial actions and the completion of its analysis, Deminor filed in October 2009 an action for damages against several UBS entities in Luxembourg. Legal actions against HSBC, Citco, Ernst & Young and PwC are in the process of being finalised and will be filed shortly before the appropriate courts.

Deminor wrote at several occasion to the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier ("CSSF"), the Luxembourg financial regulatory authority. Deminor recently demanded that the CSSF sanctions UBS as investment manager of Luxalpha for violation of Luxembourg law. CSSF has not replied so far to Deminor's arguments.

Erik Bomans: "We strongly believe that BMIS did act as investment manager, and not only as custodian and broker. Facts demonstrate that UBS knew that BMIS was doing more than the execution of orders. The delegation to BMIS was therefore in breach of the applicable Luxembourg and European laws, since the functions of investment management and custody cannot be delegated to the same entity. The set-up of the fund was illegal from the very beginning". Deminor urges the CSSF to withdraw UBS's licence as investment manager in Luxembourg.

Despite clear evidence that they breached their contractual and legal obligations, the major international institution which acted as custodians, investment managers or auditors of the funds have so far failed to recognize their responsibilities. Investors need to file actions on the merits to claim damages before the appropriate jurisdictions, as a "sit back and wait" attitude may lead to an exclusion from any recovery and is not likely to force these institutions to change their current attitude.

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Contact person:

Erik Bomans
Deminor International SCRL
+32-2-674.71.10
erik.bomans@deminor.com

730 shareholders served a writ of summons against Natixis before the Commercial Court of Paris

Please choose "French" as language in order to read the press release.

Citibank Belgium and Deminor reach agreement on a settlement offer for Lehman Brothers notes

The agreement provides Citibank Belgium customers with an immediate opportunity to recover a significant part of their investment in notes issued and guaranteed by Lehman Brothers in the context of an overall settlement.

Brussels, 7 January 2010 - Citibank Belgium and Deminor announced today that they have reached an agreement offering a solution to Citibank Belgium customers who subscribed to notes issued and guaranteed by Lehman Brothers and distributed through Citibank Belgium in the context of an overall settlement. The settlement offer includes, subject to certain conditions, a cash payment of 65% of the face value of the Lehman Brothers Notes to which Citibank Belgium customers subscribed through Citibank Belgium. In addition, clients will be offered the opportunity to place the amount of the cash payment in a blocked 3-year Time Deposit account with automatic capitalisation of interest with Citibank Belgium, yielding a 5.3% gross annual interest rate. The settlement offer also provides for a general waiver of claims against amongst others Citibank Belgium and a transfer of the Lehman Brothers Notes to Citibank Belgium or an affiliate. The settlement offer is available for acceptance from 7 January and will remain outstanding until 18 February at 5pm and will be made by direct mailing to all eligible customers.

Erik Bomans, Deminor: "The 65% upfront payment and the additional right to place the amount on a 3-year time deposit yielding 5.3% annually leads to a gross recovery ratio (not accounting for withholding tax) in excess of 75% of the total investment over three years. Deminor believes that the agreement reached with Citibank Belgium offers a fair settlement to the Citibank Belgium clients who subscribed to the Lehman Brothers Notes. Deminor therefore recommends that its clients accept it."

Guy Roosen, member of the Citibank Belgium's board of directors says "our customers' interests have always been of paramount concern to Citibank Belgium. It is now clear that the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy process will be lengthy and complicated. Therefore, Citibank Belgium has explored options to further support its customers. We have had lengthy but constructive discussions with Deminor, leading to today's settlement offer".

The settlement was concluded following the recommendation of Belgium's Minister of Economy, Vincent Van Quickenborne who, from the outset, appealed to Citibank Belgium to come up with a settlement for their customers holding Lehman Brothers notes as this would help avoid a long and uncertain legal procedure.
In this respect Minister Van Quickenborne contributed to encouraging Citibank's consideration of a number of alternative solutions resulting in this agreement with Deminor.

Since the unprecedented and unexpected collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, Citibank Belgium has taken several initiatives to support its customers. Citibank Belgium provided timely information on the development of the Lehman Brothers insolvency proceedings and provided solutions to customers in those exceptional instances where Citibank Belgium's policies and procedures were not followed to the highest standards. More recently Citibank Belgium, at its own expense, also filed claims on behalf of its customers in the Lehman Brothers U.S. insolvency proceedings.

Today, Citibank Belgium and Deminor are proposing a solution that is beneficial to all parties involved. It seeks to remove for Citibank Belgium customers in Belgium the uncertainty brought about by lengthy and complex legal proceedings.

José de Peñaranda, CEO of Citibank Belgium: "Our customers have shown great understanding and patience during this period of hardship and we sincerely thank them for that. We also want to express our gratitude to our employees and our independent agents for their support and commitment to our bank".

Deminor represents a group of more than 500 clients who subscribed to Lehman Brothers Notes through Citibank Belgium. Since September, 2008, Deminor has been at the forefront representing investors in connection with their subscription to Lehman Brothers Notes. In May, 2009, Deminor initiated a lawsuit before the Commercial Court of Brussels with the support of the Monard-d'Hulst law firm.

Erik Bomans, Deminor: "It is important for us to see that Citibank Belgium has shown a genuine concern about the difficult financial situation of their clients having subscribed to Lehman Brothers Notes and that they have been open to seeking a satisfactory solution for these clients. We are pleased with the agreement we have reached with Citibank Belgium to make a settlement offer to its customers which compares favorably with compensation offered in similar cases."

All eligible Citibank Belgium customers holding Lehman Brothers Notes will be advised shortly on how to proceed to benefit from this settlement offer.

Disclaimer

The precise legal terms and conditions of the settlement offer are as set out in the documentation that the eligible Citibank Belgium customers will receive from Citibank Belgium by direct mailing.

Media contacts:

Citibank Belgium
Lars Seynaeve
0495/599 801

Deminor
Erik Bomans
Partner
02/674 71 10

Misleading information Deminor sues Fortis SA/NV

As already announced in December 2009, Deminor launches today a procedure against Fortis SA/NV for having violated its obligations as a listed company with respect to the information it has to communicate to the public. The purpose of this procedure, which is launched before the Court of commerce of Brussels, is to claim damages for the investors who have hired Deminor.

Deminor believes that, in particular since the announcement of the launch of the takeover of ABN Amro up until the dismantling of the group in the autumn 2008, Fortis' communication was misleading on several material aspects, including on its subprime exposure, its dividend policy, its liquidity, its solvency and the consequences of the acquisition of ABN Amro. During this period of time, investors decided to buy and/or hold Fortis shares based on misleading information from Fortis.

For instance, while launching its capital increase in September 2007 in order to raise more than 13 billion euro in the market (the largest share issue that ever took place in Belgium), Fortis convinced numerous shareholders and investors to subscribe to the new shares by disclosing misleading information in the prospectus.

For these persons, losses materialized in the significant fall of the share price during this period of time which largely exceeded the overall downturn on stock markets in general and the fall of the bank index in particular.

The procedure was launched today on behalf of more than 2600 plaintiffs. Other parties will join the procedure in the coming weeks.

The damages claimed for the Deminor clients will depend on criteria such as the number of shares purchased and/or held during the aforementioned period of time. At this stage, Deminor estimates that those damages amount to at least 4 euro per share, or even more depending on the date of purchase/subscription among other criteria.

In this procedure, Deminor and its clients are advised by Ms Catherine Houssa and Mr Cédric Guyot from the law firm CMS DeBacker in Brussels.

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Person of contact :

Charles Demoulin
Tel +32-2-674-71-10

Vivendi Class Action in the USA

Please choose "French" as language in order to read the press release.

Carrere Group - 203 shareholders file a claim

Please choose "French" as language in order to read the press release.

Master Finance - Dominion

Please choose "French" or "Dutch" in order to read the press release.

Lehman Brothers Citibank - More than 98,6% of our clients accepted the settlement agreement

More than 98,6% of Deminor's clients have entered into the settlement agreement negotiated between Citibank Belgium and Deminor in the framework of the Lehman Brothers case. Deminor will no longer be active on that case with regards to Citibank Belgium.

Deminor continues to actively represent investors in Belgium (clients of Deutsche Bank), the Netherlands (clients of Wijs & Van Oostveen), or Italy (mainly clients of Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit groups). Deminor will continue to intervene in these cases in order to recover the losses suffered by its clients.

1. Following the end of the settlement period which took place on this Thursday 18 February 2010 at 5 PM, more than 98,6% of Deminor's clients have accepted the settlement offer which has been negotiated between Citibank Belgium and Deminor in the framework of the Lehman Brothers case. More than 68% have accepted the opportunity to place the amount of the payment in a 3 years' time deposit account yielding at 5.3% gross annual interest rate.

As previously indicated, Deminor will no longer be active on that case with regards to Citibank Belgium.

Deminor has been mandated by more than 500 Citibank Belgium's clients.

2. Since October 2008, Deminor has been at the forefront representing investors hit by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, by federating more than 1.100 persons in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.

Deminor continues to actively represent in Belgium clients of Deutsche Bank who have no obtained so far appropriate damages for their losses. Deminor served a writ of summons against Deutsche Bank before the

Commercial Court of Brussels in July 2009, and is closely monitoring the evolution of the investigation initiated by the Public Prosecutor of Brussels against Deutsche Bank and/or its managers on that case.

In the Netherlands, Deminor has federated a group of around 375 investors who are clients of Wijs & Van Oostveen, and is about to initiate a legal action on the merits against that financial intermediary before the court of Amsterdam in order to recover the losses suffered by its clients on their Lehman Brothers' financial products.

In Italy, Deminor has been contacted by a substantial number of investors, and is currently considering to start a legal action on a short-term basis against several financial intermediaries, such as Banca Fideuram (Intesa Sanpaolo group) and Unicredit.

* * *

Contact :

Edouard Fremault

+32.2.674.71.10

edouard.fremault@deminor.com

Deminor presented its report on Club Mediterranee's Corporate Governance practices at its Annual General Meeting on February 25, 2010

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Deminor reacts to todays Luxembourg court ruling on the Luxalpha case

Deminor deplores that European investors have been deprived of their right to enforce their claims derived from EU law before the Luxembourg courts. In order to maximize their chances of recovery and avoid the negative consequences of claw-back claims initiated by the U.S. trustee Irvin Picard against Luxalpha, Deminor encourages investors to directly sue the fund itself. Deminor will vigorously continue to defend its clients' rights in various cases it filed before the Luxembourg courts against Luxalpha and its service providers.

Deminor takes notice of today's ruling of the Tribunal d'Arrondissement de Luxembourg (Luxembourg first-instance court) declaring claims brought by individual Luxalpha investors against UBS entities and E&Y as inadmissible. The court ruled that claims against UBS and E&Y can only and exclusively be brought by the court-appointed liquidators of Luxalpha.

Deminor deplores that European investors in a Luxembourg based UCITS fund cannot have their rights derived from European UCITS legislation enforced before Luxembourg courts. Individual investors' claims are radically different from the Fund's claims pursued by the liquidators, they are based on different legal grounds and have led to losses that are different from the fund's losses. A Luxembourg court ruling appointing liquidators cannot deprive investors from their fundamental right to seek compensation for their individual losses. If this were the case, the European Union's UCITS directive, whose purpose is to "protect investors against malpractices by imposing certain minimum safeguards" by i.a. providing investors with a direct right to sue in case of losses, would be entirely deprived of its substance. Irish courts have allowed individual investors to pursue their claims in the Thema International Fund case on the basis of the same European directive, and litigation brought by investors in various other countries is proceeding.

On its website, Luxembourg's government prides itself for having turned investor protection into a top priority ("bien réglementée par une autorité de surveillance compétente et proactive, la place a développé une forte culture de protection de l'investisseur"), but more than one year after revelation of the Madoff fraud, the financial community can reasonably question the seriousness of these statements and the implementation of EU regulations in Luxembourg.

Deminor reminds that the US trustee of the Madoff estate (Irvin Picard) is currently looking to recoup more than USD 400 million from Luxalpha in claw-back actions. There is therefore a substantial risk that monies recovered by Luxalpha from UBS and E&Y will flow back to the Madoff estate in the US, where they may be redistributed among all funds without taking into account each specific fund's legal situation.

Deminor filed in October 2009 a lawsuit against Luxalpha on behalf of its clients for having published a misleading prospectus and approved the illegal set-up of the fund. Deminor encourages investors to file a similar lawsuit against the fund in order to recover full compensation of their losses, in order to fully exploit their legal arguments and to avoid the negative consequences of the claw-back procedure initiated by Irvin Picard. We believe that today's ruling does not affect the position of investors who have sued the fund itself.

The court did not rule on another argument that was brought by UBS and E&Y, i.e. that investors who are not registered in the share register of the fund have no legal standing ("intérêt à agir"). The court is of the opinion that it did not have to rule on this question, since the individual investor claims have been declared inadmissible on the first argument. Cases filed by individual investors in funds that are not in liquidation are therefore not affected by this ruling.

Deminor will vigorously continue to defend its clients' rights against Luxalpha's fund and its service providers. More in particular, on February 25th, 2010, Deminor served a writ of summons against UBS, E&Y and the CSSF aimed at getting disclosure of various documents which are likely to demonstrate that year after year UBS made false statements to the CSSF about the identity of the sub-custodian it had appointed to safekeep Luxalpha's assets, making it possible to have approved and keep into existence a fund that was illegal for breach of fundamental provisions of Luxembourg law.

* * *

Contact person:

Erik Bomans
T: +32.2.674.71.10
erik.bomans@deminor.com

Fortis Case - Misleading information Decision of the Dutch Autoriteit Financiële Markten

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Natixis case: François Pérol does not answer anymore!

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Fortis : Deminor reacts to the report of experts appointed by the Dutch Enterprise Chamber

Deminor takes notice of today's release of the report of experts appointed by the Dutch Entreprise Chamber on November 24, 2008.

The 581 pages report contains a detailed description of Fortis' deteriorating financial situation from its decision to participate to the consortium's takeover bid on ABN Amro to the dismantling of the group end September / early October, 2008. The report covers a long period (from July, 2007 to early October, 2008) and a broad range of issues, including financial communication, solvency and liquidity management, and the dismantling transactions.

The report is important for Deminor clients' action that was initiated against Fortis in January, 2010 before the Commercial Court of Brussels. The purpose of this law suit is to recover Deminor's clients' losses resulting from Fortis' misrepresentation of its financial situation during the relevant period, which coincides with the period covered by the experts report.

While describing in detail the factual circumstances that have brought Fortis to the crisis situation of end September / early October 2008, the experts do not hesitate to express their fierce criticism of Fortis' lack of management of its deteriorating situation and its failure to timely communicate its financial problems (including sub-prime exposure and solvency and liquidity issues) to the market. In general, the tone and contents of the experts' report is very critical of Fortis' and its management's conduct during the relevant period.

Deminor therefore concludes that the experts' report confirms its analysis, i.e. that Fortis misled investors on several material aspects, including its subprime exposure, its liquidity and solvency, its commitments not to launch dilutive share issues and to maintain the dividend policy, and the consequences of the takeover of ABN Amro. Based on this misleading information, investors bought and/or held Fortis shares. They suffered losses as a result of the significant fall of the stock price after the market became aware of the true situation of Fortis.
Deminor will communicate in further detail about the experts' report in the next few days.

Various institutional investors have joined Deminor's group action before the Commercial Court of Brussels and many are still in the process of joining. Given the publication of the experts' report, Deminor had decided to extend the deadline for participation to its action to July 31st, 2010.

Deminor is looking forward to the report of the experts appointed by the Commercial Court of Brussels.

* * *

Contact person:

Erik Bomans
Tel +32-2-674-71-10

erik.bomans@deminor.com

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Carrere Group: Transmission of the criminal investigations to the French financial squad and winding up of Carrere Group by order of the Commercial Court of Bobigny

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Fortis case: Misleading information

Deminor takes note of the recent decision of the Dutch Market Authority (Autoriteit Financiële Markten or AFM) that condemns Fortis (now Ageas) once more for violation of the Dutch law on financial supervision.

This decision of the AFM relates to the communication by Fortis on September 21, 2007 regarding the potential impact of its exposure to subprime investments on the profit and loss accounts. The same information was included in the prospectus issued by Fortis in the context of the rights issue of more than €13 billion in September and October 2007.

In its press release of today, the AFM states that, in the Fortis press release of September 21, 2007 as well as in the prospectus, an amount of €20 million is mentioned as the expected additional impact on the profit and loss accounts for FY 2007 if the subprime severity would deteriorate by a further 20%. Fortis does not give any indication on the nature and size of the exposure to subprime investments. In addition, the press release does not give any explanation on how Fortis has come to the calculation of that amount nor on what Fortis means by a 20% deterioration. By only mentioning a significantly low impact of €20 million, without providing explanations regarding the calculation of that figure, the AFM fears that investors have been misled. The AFM comes to the conclusion that the investors could not fully assess the risks arising from the indirect subprime investments of Fortis and their potential impact on the value of Fortis in the long term. As such, Fortis withheld important price sensitive information from (potential) investors.

Following the first decision of the AFM earlier this year which already imposed a fine on Fortis and the report by the Dutch experts that was published on June 16, 2010, this new decision of the AFM as well as the facts and the argumentation on which it is based once more confirm and reinforce Deminor's own analysis of Fortis' communication during the period preceding the dismantling of the group.

At the end of 2009, Deminor came to the conclusion that during this period of time Fortis' communication had been misleading on several material aspects, including its subprime exposure. Deminor therefore decided to launch a procedure against Fortis before the commercial court of Brussels.

The purpose of this procedure is to claim compensation for the losses suffered by investors due to the misleading information disclosed by Fortis during the period of time from the official announcement of the takeover on ABN Amro at the end of May 2007 until the dismantling of the group at the beginning of October 2008.

The group around Deminor includes more than 4,000 persons and consists of both private and institutional investors.

* * *

Contact:

Charles Demoulin
Tel +32 2 674 71 10

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