The General Meeting of the Czech Export Bank, which was held today in Prague, approved and concluded the activities of the Bank for the year 2008 and, at the same time, gave approval to another important decision. For CEB the year 2008 was a period of two parallel and successfully managed processes. The Bank continued to expand the quantity of its support provided for the funding of Czech exports and at the same time commenced a process of internal changes directed towards the highest level of quality and dynamism and to a wider range of business services in the future. What the State requires of the CEB, is to focus on the maximum effectiveness of support for Czech exporters, in regard to the complicated situation during the current turbulent period in the development of the world economy.

The General Meeting approved the financial results of the Bank and of its business activities. During the year 2008, CEB concluded contracts totalling EUR 20.5 billion, which is approximately 6% more than during the year 2007. The balance total of CEB increased annually by almost 24% and reached 42.5 billion CZK. More than 75% of the newly signed contracts defined conditions for the financing of exports, in particular for large-scale capital equipment in the CIS countries, and in particular in the Russian Federation. The total volume of loans increased from 23.8 billion CZK to 32.3 billion CZK. The size of loans for the financing of SMEs increased, by inter-annual comparison, from 390 million CZK to 497 million CZK. In accordance with the requirements of exporters and the expectations of the shareholder, the Bank is financing, in particular, the expansion of Czech companies in markets outside the EU, which have been, up till now, receiving only 15% of Czech exports. The highest proportion of the loan portfolio still goes to Russia (46%), to other CIS states, to Vietnam, China and other Asian countries. Czech exporters are starting to look more actively towards markets in the Balkans, Southern Africa and Latin America and the Bank is prepared to assist them, in conjunction with IFIs and with the commercial sector. Specifically, during the second half of the year, the Bank began to prepare for the additional involvement in these markets of exporters who, up to the present time, have been active only in the advanced economies. With increased competition the complexity and demand factors of financing also increase for exporters.

The General Meeting of the Czech Export Bank elected Mr. Milan Šimáček, Mr. Luboš Vaněk and Mrs. Jana Adamcová to membership of the Supervisory Board.

The General Meeting also approved a proposal to increase the authorised capital of the Bank from its current 2,000,000,000 CZK to the authorised capital of 2,950,000,000 CZK, which will be paid in cash deposits (650 million by the State, 300 million by EGAP). The objective of this capital increase is primarily the creation of a sufficient margin for the provision of state support for exports with a long-term view, increasing the limit of credit exposure for a client or for an economically associated group, increasing the limit of exposure for individual countries or sectors, the creation of more favourable conditions for the export activities of small and medium-sized enterprises and the increasing of cooperation with commercial banks in the area of refinancing of loans. After the implementation of this increase the share of the State will be 72.9% and the share of EGAP 27.1%.

Supervisory Board of CEB

The Supervisory Board of the Czech Export Bank subsequently discussed during the period December 2008 - March 2009 the resignation of Ing. Jiří Šiman as a Member of the Supervisory Board, the resignation of Ing. Martin Tlapa, MBA from the office of Vice-Chairman and Member of the Supervisory Board of the CEB and of doc. Ing. Vaclav Petříček, CSc. as a Member of the Supervisory Board of the CEB. On the basis of a proposal by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, the Supervisory Board based on the agreement of all the shareholders, elected new members to the Supervisory Board, as described in the Press Release.