Swedbank signs contract with Baltic Hansa Investments

Swedbank signs contract with Baltic Hansa Investments Swedbank (FöreningsSparbanken AB) has signed a contract with Baltic Hansa Investments Ltd to engage the Estonian company as corporate advisors in Estonia. Swedbank has been active in the Estonian banking system for several years. Through the merger earlier this year between Estonian Hoiupank and Hansapank Swedbank became shareholder in the merged Hansapank. Swedbank before the merger owned close to 20 per cent in Hoiupank and had established a strategic commercial relation with the Estonian bank. The ownership and cooperation in Estonia is a result of the Swedbank strategy to build a network of alliances with nationally and locally strong banks throughout the Nordic and Baltic region. Last month Swedbank announced an agreement with the Norwegian banking group SpareBank 1 Gruppen to form a strategic alliance in Norway, including a 25 per cent ownership in SpareBank 1. In Finland Swedbank has already developed a strategic alliance with local savings and cooperative banks including a 25 per cent shareholding in Finnish Aktia Bank. Swedbank furthermore has an alliance and minority shareholding in the major Polish bank Bank Handlowy. For further information, please contact: Håkan Källåker, Executive Vice President, telephone +46 8-585 915 30 Lars-Olof Ödlund, Senior Advisor, telephone +46 8-585 911 98 Einar Frydén, Information Manager, telephone +46 8-585 916 30, +46 70-511 00 33