Prospectus - Notowania

The Issuer and its BA and PAI subsidiaries were named as part of the 50 defendants in three
putative class actions suits filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District
of New York, in which the petitioners claim to represent the investors of three funds in which
assets were invested in BMIS, directly or indirectly. The defendants were accused of having
omitted pertinent information from, or including false information in, prospectuses and related
appendices used for the securities offer. The petitioners of the class action allege that the
investors were misled, for example, as to the lack of diversification of the investments, on the
fact that the funds were invested in BMIS and on the level of due diligence performed by the
defendants. Furthermore, the petitioners allege that the defendants did not give adequate
attention to "red flags" that were identified and would have made them aware of Bernard L.
Madoff’s fraud. The three class actions claim compensation for damages with related interest,
reimbursement of expenses, costs, legal consultancy fees and the recognition of
equitable/injunctive relief. One of the class actions specifically seeks a sentence finding the
defendants liable for an amount equivalent to the amount of the initial investments of the
collective parties together with interest and proceeds that the parties would have received if
their money had been invested wisely. This suit also specifically requests compensation for
punitive damages and that the Court prohibits the defendants from using assets of the funds to
defend themselves or to indemnify themselves.
Proceedings were initiated in Austria related to Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud in which BA and
BANKPRIVAT AG (a former subsidiary of BA, with which it merged on October 28, 2009),
among others, were named as defendants. The parties invested in funds that, in turn, invested
directly or indirectly in BMIS. BA is also the subject of proceedings in Austria following the
complaint filed by the Supervisory Authority for Austrian financial markets with the Austrian
Attorney's Office and complaints filed to said Attorney's Office by private parties that invested
in funds which, in turn, invested directly or indirectly in BMIS. The parties that filed said
complaints maintain that BA violated the terms of the Austrian Consolidated Investment Act
that governs the role of BA as “auditor of the prospectus” of Primeo funds.
Several subsidiaries of the Issuer have received orders and requests to produce information and
documents from the SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice and the SIPA Trustee in the United
States, the Austrian Supervisory Authority for financial markets, the Irish Supervisory
Authority for financial markets and BaFin in Germany related to their respective investigations
into Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud. The companies that received said orders and requests are
cooperating.
In addition to proceedings stemming from the Madoff case against the Issuer, its subsidiaries
and some of their respective employees and former employees, additional actions have been
threatened and may be filed in the future in said countries or in other countries by private
investors or local authorities. The pending or future actions may have negative consequences
for the Company, both individually and as a whole.
As at the Date of the Prospectus, all pending actions were in the initial phases. The Issuer and
its subsidiaries involved intend to defend themselves against the charges regarding the Madoff
case by any method available to them. As at the Date of the Prospectus, it is not possible to
reliably estimate the timing and results of the various actions, nor determine the level of
responsibility, if any responsibility exists. In compliance with international accounting
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