Alfred Berg takes first place for IPOs and award for best equity house in the Nordic region

Alfred Berg, through ABN AMRO Rothschild, the bank’s joint venture for equity capital markets, has for the first time achieved first place for IPOs in the Nordic region for the first half of 2005. This week it was also named ‘Best Equity House in the Nordic Region and the Baltics’ in Euromoney magazine’s 2005 Awards for Excellence, as well as receiving individual country awards for Best Equity House in Denmark and Sweden. David Woods, CEO of Alfred Berg, said: “Alfred Berg has taken a strong position in the Nordic investment banking market, with first-rate corporate finance and equities franchises. We have a unique position in the region as an established local operation with large-scale global capability through the ABN AMRO group. “That combination of local knowledge and global expertise has proven to be decisive also for our Equities clients and those clients requiring cross-border corporate finance expertise.” He concluded. The Thomson IPO league table position included several landmark transactions in the region, including the USD748m IPO of Neste Oil on 15 April, which remains the largest IPO in this region this year and the EUR44m IPO of TopoTarget on 9 June, which was the first IPO in Denmark since 2001 as well as re-opening the IPO market in the biotech sector. Other awards won this year include Best Nordic research house in StarMine. Alfred Berg also became No. 1 in Finland and Denmark and No. 2 in Norway in the Prospera stockbroker ranking in January this year. - - - Press enquiries: Katja Margell +46 8 5723 5130