PRESS RELEASES

Wood & Company, the largest Czech securities broker, was named “Best Equity House” for 2001. The prestigious financial magazine Euromoney bestowed the honor, which is based on voting by leading financial institutions. This marks the 5th year Wood & Company has won this award.

“We are naturally very pleased with the prize,” said Jan Sýkora, director of Wood & Company, “and it poses a great challenge for our future activities. The confidence of major international investors and our leading position in securities trading on the Prague Stock Exchange are clear proof that we are able to maintain our strong position, despite the rather complicated situation on the Central European markets recently.”

Wood & Company is the leading securities trader on the Prague Stock Exchange. Last year, the company traded shares and units with volumes surpassing 70 billion CZK, or almost 14% of the total volume of the stock exchange. This year, Wood & Company has been succeeding in marginally increasing its leading market share.