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[email protected] 27 May 2010 Max Bank and Skælskør Bank agree on the basis for a merger Following targeted and constructive negotiations, the Supervisory Boards of Max Bank and Skælskør Bank have agreed to propose to the Annual General Meetings of the Banks to merge the two banks. The Danish State, being the principal shareholder of Skælskør Bank, has expressed its willingness to support the merger. The Bank will carry on under the name of Max Bank. The Bank will be deeply rooted in South and West Zealand with 13 private customer branches and 5 corporate customer divisions distributed throughout the entire market area. The head office will be located at Aquahuset near the Næstved harbour which Max Bank moved into about a year ago. Both banks envisage major synergy opportunities from this merger marketwise, costwise and earningswise. Max Bank is generally twice the size of Skælskør Bank. Combined, the two banks have today about 280 employees, and loans and advances, deposits and guarantees total approximately DKK 14.5bn. Both banks have long histories in their local market places. The roots of Skælskør Bank reach back to 1876 and Max Bank to 1901. They have both developed from being largely private customer banks to today also being strongly positioned in the corporate market area of Eastern Denmark. The branches of the banks are quite complementary to each other, with only Slagelse overlapping. Capital structure in place Over the last two years, both banks have made considerable write-downs for impairment - primarily of a few large corporate exposures.