Corporate | 14 February 2007 09:42
ARAGON AG / Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous Corporate news transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales partner of MPC Capital subsidiary, Assentus Bank AG, can now sell the complete range of structured products and investment funds of the bank under the liability umbrella of Jung, DMS & Cie. AG. A cooperation agreement to this effect was signed between MPC Capital and Jung, DMS & Cie. The cooperation agreement allows free distribution partners which do not have authorisation in line with Article 32 of the German Banking Act (permission to operate banking business), to sell structured products and investment funds of Assentus Bank AG under the liability umbrella of Jung, DMS & Cie. AG. After the strategic participation of HCI Capital AG of 25% and one share in Aragon AG made in December, this is the second important step of Aragon AG within a short period to be actively involved in the distribution market in Germany. According to the Board of Management, there will be a radical change on the German sales market over the next few years as a result of higher regulatory and technical requirements. The main trend is the momentum away from the sale of individual products to holistic customer advice. The key driver is the implementation of important EU directives such as the MiFID. According to Aragon, this will mean that business models on the basis of asset class will become a thing of the past, giving way to integrated advisory models in which the relevant financial intermediary can access a full product range, including structured bank products and certificates, as well as a full bank as custodian. In order to react adequately to these fundamental market changes and to emerge as a winner in a reordered sales market, Aragon made several important strategic moves in the last 12 months. This include the participation in the distribution for closed-end funds BIT Treuhand AG, the strategic partnership with HCI and now also MPC, as well as the key move of increasing the stake in biw Bank für Investments und Wertpapiere AG to 75% minus on share in December 2006e. In its business areas of Retail Sales, Institutional Sales and Banking Services, the broadly diversified Aragon AG is one of the few market participants with a strategic positioning to emerge as a winner from the shake-up in the market. +++ About Aragon AG Aragon is a broadly diversified financial sales group operating in Retail Sales, Institutional Sales and Banking Services. Aragon is active in the market through several independently operating subsidiaries. The aim is to integrate various sales models under one roof yet still preserve the identities of the various individual sales companies. This results in a wide diversification over several different assets classes and product types and thus generate high stability in corporate earnings. Aragon AG currently holds a 100% stake in Jung, DMS & Cie. AG, a 51% shareholding in biw Bank für Investments und Wertpapiere AG and a 60% share in BIT Beteiligungs- & Investitions-Treuhand AG. It also owns a 58% holding in Fundmatrix AG and 100% stake in inpunkto finanz GmbH. Further information on the company and its subsidiaries is available at www.aragon-ag.de Contact: Aragon AG Christiane Kriesche Leiterin Marketing & Kommunikation Grüneburgweg 18 60322 Frankfurt Tel.: +49(0)69 713 75 88 17 Fax: +49(0)69 713 75 88 89 E-Mail: christiane.kriesche@aragon-ag.de DGAP 14.02.2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------------