Announcement

On 2 April 2019, the competent Romanian court - before which was pending the third judicial proceeding in Romania between First Investment Bank AD ("Fibank") and the Romanian Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture („Agenţia de Plăţi şi Intervenţie pentru Agricultură" in Romanian or „APIA") - ruled in favor of Fibank, thereby granting Fibank's challenge and dismissing all motions of the Romanian agency. The court annulled the rulings and the actions related to the enforcement as to the bank guarantee of 31 July 2012 with ref. No 000LG-L-003436, issued in favor of APIA. APIA was also ordered to pay the associated court fees.

An excerpt from the ruling is publicly available at the following link: http://portal.just.ro/299/SitePages/Dosar.aspx?id_dosar=29900000000691748&id_inst=299

We would like to recall that, in relation to the other two bank guarantees issued by Fibank in favor of APIA and invoked by it, there are final (i.e. entered into force) court decisions of the competent Romanian court, which annulled the enforcement against the bank.