DGAP-News

SWIPRA: New independent Swiss Proxy Advisor for Institutional Investors - Seite 2

season of General Meetings. These Policy Considerations define, among
others, the criteria for long-term and sustainable value-based management.
Second, the collaboration with the Department of Banking and Finance
(´DBF´) allows an economically and empirically well-founded view. Third,
the basis for the individual voting recommendations is a multi-level,
structured process. This process allows for an interaction with the issuer
as well as an individual assessment of the situation whereby the management
of SWIPRA will verify the draft recommendations as proposed by the DBF, in
case of a disputable recommendation contact the issuer and involve the
Board of Trustees.

SWIPRA was recently founded by three donors, the largest independent
joint-foundation in Switzerland, vita Sammelstiftung, the association of
Swiss investment foundations, KGAST, and a large pension fund, the pension
fund of Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland). The Board of Trustees is
composed of Prof. em. Dr. Rudolf Volkart (Chairman), Prof. Dr. Bruno
Gehirg, Prof. em. Dr. Peter Forstmoser and Prof. Dr. Alexander F. Wagner
from the Institute of Banking and Finance of the University of Zurich. The
Board of Trustees appointed the economist and finance specialist Ms.
Barbara A. Heller as Chief Executive Officer of the foundation. More
information on the members of the Board of Trustees and the Chief Executive
Officer can be found on www.swipra.ch .

The Board of Trustees will be responsible for regular updates and a
thorough validity check of the Policy Considerations as well as the
assessment of disputable recommendations. The foundation is emphasizing
independence and transparency and has therefore developed an internal Code
of Conduct regulating, among others, the exclusion of members of the Board
of Trustees from voting on recommendations in case of a potential conflict
of interest, i.e. recommendations in connection with companies where they
have been member of a company´s board within the past 5 years (´Cooling Off
Period´). Information related to Cooling Off Periods will be disclosed on
SWIPRA´s webpage.

It is SWIPRA´s goal to provide recommendations for the Annual General
Meetings of the 50 largest companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SMI
Expanded(R)) by 2014. SWIPRA will not appear publicly at General Meetings
nor will it publish its voting recommendations. Clients will have access to
SWIPRA´s recommendations through the electronic platform ´Sherpany´
provided by Agilentia Ltd, Zurich, Switzerland.

Prof. Rudolf Volkart, Chairman of the Board of Trustees says: ´We are