Directors Appointment

RNS Number : 8573N

Equest Investments Balkans Ltd

25 February 2009

 



25 February 2009

Equest Investment Balkans Limited

(the 'Company')

Appointment of Directors 

Further to the announcement on 4 February 2009 that the Company's two largest shareholders, namely the State General Reserve Fund of the Sultanate of Oman ('SGRF') and Kairos Investment Management Limited ('Kairos'), had requested the appointment of representatives of SGRF and Kairos as directors of the Company, the board announces that today:

• Mr Warith Mubarik Al-Kharusi;

• Mr Faisal Amur Mohamed Al-Riyami;

• Mr Guido Maria Brera; and

• Mr Kalim Aziz

have each been appointed a Non-Executive Director of the Company and that:

• Mr Georgi Krumov 

has been re-appointed an Executive Director of the Company.

SGRF currently holds 5,894,834 ordinary shares of no par value in the Company ('ordinary shares') (representing 32.27% of the issued share capital of the Company) and funds managed by Kairos own 3,743,866 ordinary shares in the Company (representing 20.50% of the issued share capital of the Company). SGRF and Kairos together control 52.77% of the issued share capital of the Company. 

Enquiries:
Equest Investments Balkans Limited  Tel: + 44 20 7240 7600  Petri Karjalainen  Naomi Kora	Financial Dynamics  Tel: + 44 20 7831 3113  Nick Henderson  David Cranmer
Collins Stewart Europe Limited (Nomad) Tel: [phone] Hugh Field	KBC Peel Hunt Limited (Broker)  Tel: + 44 20 7418 8900  Capel Irwin

Disclosures under AIM Rules

Mr Al Kharusi

Mr Al-Kharusi, a resident of Oman, joined the SGRF in 1985 as the Director General and is now the Chief Executive Officer of the SGRF. He holds a Diploma in Business Administration.

Mr Al-Kharusi  (aged 55) holds or has held the following directorships, and is or was a member of the following partnerships during the past five years:

Current Directorships / Partnerships:		Past Directorships / Partnerships:
Eagle Properties (L.P.) No.3		None
Eagle Properties (L.P.) No.4
Eagle Properties (L.P.) No.6
The European Acquisition Company S.a.r.l.
The European Acquisition Company 2 S.a.r.l.
Bulgarian Acquisition Company VI S.a.r.l.
Wopac No.1 Limited
Palm Properties
Sprint (GP) Limited
Normandy (GP) Limited
SEE Capital Sarl
Eagle Properties 7
Spartak Tours AD
Vietnam Oman Investment Company
Advent International
Migros
National Investment Funds Company
Grand Angle Holding France SAS
Le Trema France Property S.A.R.L.
Bulco Acquisition AD

Mr Al-Riyami

Mr Al-Riyami, a resident of Oman, joined the SGRF in June 2007 as the Section Head of Direct Investments of the SGRF.

Mr Al-Riyami was previously the Finance Director of Railtech Solutions Limited ('Railtech Solutions') (see further below), a company located in Portsmouth in the UK specializing in IT software for principally road and rail networks in the transportation sector (2005 to 2007), Financial Controller of Nawras Telecom (2004 to 2005) and an Internal Auditor at Bank Muscat (1999 to 2004).

Mr Al-Riyami holds an MBA (Finance) from the University of Leicester and is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association.

Mr Al-Riyami is a director of Borovets Invest EAD, which is a joint venture between a subsidiary of the Company and the SGRF.

As noted above, Mr Al-Riyami was appointed the Finance Director of Railtech Solutions (a company incorporated in England & Wales with registered number 03973036) on 1 November 2005. At the time of his appointment, Railtech Solutions was in financial difficulties and Mr Al-Riyami joined in that knowledge and with the express intent of trying to restructure and turn around Railtech Solutions. He resigned as a director of Railtech Solutions on 6 March 2007. On 29 March 2007 joint administrators were appointed to Railtech Solutions, under the floating charge, under Paragraph 49 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986. The winding up of Railtech Solutions commenced in June 2008 and Railtech Solutions was dissolved in January 2009. The secured creditor was paid in full and the shortfall for unsecured creditors was approximately £1 million.

Mr Al-Riyami (aged 32) holds or has held the following directorships, and is or was a member of the following partnerships during the past five years:

Current Directorships / Partnerships:		Past Directorships / Partnerships:
SEE Capital Management Sarl		Railtech Solutions Limited
Spartak Tours AD
Borovets Invest EAD

Mr Brera

Mr Brera, who is Italian, is a co-founder of Kairos. He graduated from Universita La Sapienza, Rome and qualified as a Dottore Commercialista (the equivalent of a chartered accountant) in 1993. In 1994, he joined Fineco SIM, concentrating on relative value trades, calendar spreads, stock index futures arbitrages and the establishment of structured products for institutional clients. In 1996, he joined Cisalpina Gestioni as manager of the Cisalpina Bilanciato and Cisalpina Indice funds. In 1997, he joined Giubergia Warburg as director, Head of Proprietary Trading, leaving to establish Kairos in early 1999. Mr Brera has been co-manager of Kairos Fund Limited since its inception in June 1999.

Mr Brera (aged 39) holds or has held the following directorships, and is or was a member of the following partnerships during the past five years:

Current Directorships / Partnerships:		Past Directorships / Partnerships:
Kairos investment Management SpA		None
Kairos investment Management Limited
Oliver Twist Foundation
IMATION (Italy)

Mr Aziz

Mr Aziz joined Kairos in January 2006 and is the co-fund manager of the Kairos Eurasian Fund with Guido Brera and is the primary analyst at Kairos for stocks in the Eurasian markets. Before joining Kairos, he was Head of Equity research for the EMEA Region at UniCredit Banca Mobiliare in London (2004 to December 2005). Previously Mr Aziz has specialised in Telecoms research and he held a number of senior research positions at securities houses in London and Karachi. Mr Aziz holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Karachi.

Mr Aziz (aged 43) holds or has held the following directorships, and is or was a member of the following partnerships during the past five years:

Current Directorships / Partnerships:		Past Directorships / Partnerships:
Little Lord Fauntleroy Foundation		None

Mr Krumov

Mr Krumov was previously appointed an executive director of the Company on 23 June 2008 and resigned on 7 November 2008.

Mr. Krumov has more than thirteen years of experience in executive positions in multinational companies operating in Bulgaria and the region such as Cable & Wireless (UK), Burmah Castrol (UK) and British Petroleum (UK). Mr. Krumov is an owner of a diversified group of companies operating in Bulgaria, one of which is Electron Progress AD, one of the country's largest suppliers in the defence communication sector. 

Mr. Krumov, together with Mr. Kari Haataja and Mr. Petri Karjalainen (who are also directors of the Company) are the owners of Equest Capital Management Limited. Prior to the reorganisation of the management structure of the Company earlier in 2009, the Company had delegated the day-to-day management of its investment portfolio to Equest Capital Management Limited, which acted as the Investment Manager to the Company.  

Mr. Krumov previously owned an indirect interest in 20 per cent. of the issued share capital of Avto Union AD (which is a subsidiary of the Company). 

Mr Krumov (aged 46) holds or has held the following directorships, and is or was a member of the following partnerships during the past five years:

Current Directorships / Partnerships:		Past Directorships / Partnerships:
Avanti Capital EAD Avto Union AD Axes Europe OOD Boyana Residence OOD Burma Oil TP Companies Management International Centre AD Equest Capital Management Limited Equest Property Management Limited GBK EOOD Gransport Auto EOOD IQuest EAD Mejdunaroden Tzentar Po Firmeno Upravlenie AD National Board of Tourism Association Novera AD Rila-Samokov 2004 AD SEE Capital Management AD SEE Capital Management Sarl Spartak Turs AD Uniqa Health Insurance AD UNIQA Insurance Company AD Nigo 62 SD VIP International Services OOD		Atia Holidays EAD Banya Holiday AD  Bellevue Property Management EAD Borovets Investments EAD Castrol Italiana Cherno more- Belvue OOD Equest EAD Electron Progress AD EPM Holding EAD Equest Investment Balkans Limited Equest Partners Limited Hastings EOOD Insurance Company Vitosha AD Lexington EAD Star Motors EOOD Strategicle defencive systems AD Union Properties EAD

Mr. Krumov has a beneficial interest in 579,517 ordinary shares in the Company (representing 3.17% of the issued share capital) and 188,308 warrants in the Company.

SEE Capital Management SARL, which is owned as to 40% by Mr Krumov and 60% by SGRF, is involved, through its Bulgarian subsidiary, in providing management, consultancy and development services in relation to property projects in Bulgaria.

There are no further disclosures required under paragraph (g) of Schedule Two of the AIM Rules for Companies in respect of Mr Al-Kharusi, Mr Al-Riyami, Mr Brera, Mr Aziz and Mr Krumov.

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