Investor Relations News · Issue No. 2 · 2008 Seite 2 PerformanceNachrichten aus Financials Miscellaneos Ausgabe 1 · Januar 2008 Transport Finance Strategy Up-to-date / Transport Finance Financials News Performance➜➜➜ Page 1 ➜➜➜ Page 6 ➜➜➜ Page 8 DVB's strategic positioning Editorial Dear readers, With its products and 1. Mission Statement services, DVB Group is this issue of „Performance“ deals with DVB´s strategic positioning, uniquely focused on select We segment the global transport market into shipping, with up-to-date resolutions of segments of the international aviation and land transport. DVB is a highly specialised our Board and with DVB Group´s transport markets. niche player serving these transport segments. Financials 2007, which were commentated by Wolfgang Driese, CEO and Chairman of the Over the years, we have continuously enhanced our core skills. Essentially, we offer five kinds Board of Managing Directors, as of value-adding products and services to approximately 500 clients in Shipping, Aviation and follows: Land Transport. Leveraging DVB’s in-depth proprietary asset and market research, analysing „...DVB recorded a strong result transport means and operators as well as transport markets, we offer our clients a range of for 2007, despite a challenging value-added products comprising structured asset financing, equity sourcing and investments, market environment. Even risk distribution, advisory services as well as loan participations. though the retention of profits, to strengthen the Bank’s capital and finance its continued growth, Our business model is well-defined and unique, and for this reason our Mission Statement remains our priority, we plan captures both our real accomplishments and our vision of the future. to boost our shareholders’ participation in the Bank’s higher earnings. Our business model We are the leading specialist in international transport finance. – and our strict adherence to it – have shielded us against any direct negative impact of the crisis on financial markets.” DVB – Setting the pace in transport finance. Not just a claim, but reality. Best regards, Elisabeth Winter, Manager Investor Relations Page 2 PerformanceStrategy Up-to-date / Transport Finance Investor Relations News · Issue No. 2 · 2008 Financials News 2. Core products and services Structured Asset Financing Drawing on our core service Structured Asset Finance, our three Transport Finance divisions offer financing solutions relating to transport assets. In addition to traditional asset finance, we offer our clients tailor-made structured and tax-optimised solutions for complex financing projects, often covering multiple jurisdictions. Equity Sourcing und Investments Thanks to the extensive analytic output provided by our Asset & Market Research unit, and the resultant expertise regarding transport markets, we are an ideal partner for clients requiring equity capital and investors seeking suitable investment projects in the relevant sectors. This purpose in mind, our Investment Management division has launched funds in the areas of Shipping (NFC Shipping Funds), Aviation (Deucalion Aviation Funds), Cruise/Ferry Funds, Intermodal Equipment, and Rail Rolling Stock (Stephenson Capital). The funds put us in a position to offer our clients equity products to finance their investment projects. Risk Distribution We usually employ our own capital when financing the assets of our Transport Finance clients. Notwithstanding this commitment, we syndicate portions of this lending volume – which can be substantial – to other financial institutions on the international banking market. Both for DVB and its clients, this placement of credit risks is important to ensure sufficient liquidity and adequate risk transfer. Advisory Services DVB’s involvement in the value creation chain affecting the various transport sectors in the global transport market is not restricted to providing finance, but includes advisory services as well. In fact, we offer a range of advisory services for Shipping, Aviation and Land Transport clients, covering consultancy related to corporate acquisitions and divestments, strategic decision-making on finance and capital structure, refinancing, and the funding of acquisitions. Loan Participations In 2007, we established our wholly-owned subsidiary, ITF International Transport Finance Suisse AG: the Zurich-based entity is actively participating in international senior asset-based lending. Asset & Market Research Our Asset & Market Research unit provides the basis for the activities of our business divisions, leveraging the unit’s long-standing research know-how to provide financing products and advisory services, as well as optimising the raising of equity finance. Page 3 PerformanceStrategy Up-to-date / Transport Finance Investor Relations News · Issue No. 2 · 2008 Financials News 3. Enhancing DVB`s asset expertise and segment-specific services Here is a detailed overview of DVB’s business divisions, business areas and the full range of products and services offered by DVB: DVB - the asset specialist In 2007, DVB demonstrated that in addition to being a financing and advisory specialist, we provide our clients with services that focus closely on the specific assets of a given transport segment. Thus, we offer far more than the traditional range of banking services. Our asset- focused services are available to operators and investors, but also to our competitors. Based in London, Aviation Asset Management provides our Aviation clients with a broad spectrum of services ranging from lease management, advisory, technical management and analysis to remarketing. Further highly client-specific services covering • aircraft engines (TES Aviation Group, Cardiff) and • intermodal transport assets such as container boxes (Equipment Trading Platform of our Container Business Unit) help us gain even more intimate expertise with the nature of the various assets: literally, the ‘metal’ that we are dealing with. We offer our clients a unique profile of expertise, experience and competence in execution. US capital markets products for Shipping clients Complementing the range of services is equity underwriting. Based in New York, our subsidiary DVB Capital Markets LLC holds a broker-dealer license, providing our Shipping clients with financial advice and supporting their efforts to raise capital in the US capital markets via underwritings, offerings and private placements of equity, debt and equity-linked securities. Page 4 PerformanceStrategy Up-to-date / Transport Finance Investor Relations News · Issue No. 2 · 2008 Financials News 4. DVB`s global presence and organisational structure With offices in 13 pivotal locations, our business divisions Shipping, Aviation, Land Transport, Investment Management and ITF Suisse have a worldwide presence in the transport markets and their various segments. This global presence enables us to take into account the international dimension as well as the local specifics of the markets in which our clients operate. On the 1st of January 2008, DVB’s Shipping division introduced a new organisational structure, focusing on the key shipping sectors. Our sector-specific organisational structure is unique in the global shipping industry. We felt encouraged to adopt the structure by the success of three teams of specialists set up in recent years: • Container Box Unit (2003); • Cruise Finance Unit (2005); and • FPSO Unit (Floating Production Storage and Offloading – 2006). We came to recognise that the individual requirements of our clients can be served even better by taking a sector-specific approach. The new organisational structure facilitates the effort to further expand DVB’s expertise in select segments. Moreover, it will enable the Group to gain a truly global insight and assessment on each given sector. In this way, we build more competence to the benefit of our clients. Page 5 PerformanceStrategy Up-to-date / Transport Finance Investor Relations News · Issue No. 2 · 2008 Financials News 5. DVB’s competitive strengths Our clients’ needs are closely tied to specific assets. Our particular strength derives from our ability to understand a client’s business model, and the assets employed, significantly better than the competition. The client survey conducted in 2006 produced evidence that our key strengths lie in our know-how, our experience and our capacity to offer flexible solutions. We are considered among the “most knowledgeable, most experienced, most responsive and most flexible institutions” in the market. Our focus on assets puts us in a position to accompany our clients with sophisticated financing solutions at any stage of a sector’s business cycle. Complete dedication to the international transport industry makes us a reliable and long-term partner. Our key competitive strengths distinguish us from other market participants: • a unique focus on financing requirements in select sub-sectors of the international transport market; • proprietary asset research in Shipping, Aviation and Land Transport; • broad risk diversification within a given sub-sector; • professionals with specialised expertise in financing issues and advisory competence geared to select sub-sectors; and • highly efficient decision-making structures and our decentralised positioning in the international transport markets. 6. DVB´s consistent industry focus DVB will consistently adhere to its strategic focus on selected transport market segments. Our aim is to continuously improve the efficiency of our products and