SPEECH BY ANDREW FRASER at the EPL DINNER

Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests:
As some of you may be aware, this afternoon we had a wonderful ceremony to launch Equity Partners Securities Limited, our brokerage arm which is honoured to have Mr. M. Mustafiz Ur Rahman, also a former BOI chief, as its Chairman.

With such distinguished guests present, I feel especially proud to be present today to introduce Equity Partners Limited, the holding company for all our operations in Bangladesh.

Our Management Team has my vote of thanks, as they have turned an exciting dream into reality: the Managing Director of EPL is Saiful Islam. Our two other resident Directors are Mahfuz Rahman and Asif Anwar. The other non-resident Director is Mark Reinecke

.Many of our shareholders have travelled far to be here with us tonight. For most it is their first trip to Bangladesh, and I know they are thrilled with the warm welcome they have received here.

May I just take the opportunity to introduce them to you:

• Bank Julius Baer, a leading European private merchant bank based in Zurich, Switzerland, who have sent Thomas Hugger, Head of Asia Desk.
• We have an entourage from Abu Dhabi. We have Neil McLoughlin from the Abu Dhabi Investment Company, the leading private equity vehicle of the state of Dubai.
• Safer Shariff from Trimark Trading and Corporate Resources Advisors in Dubai and New York.

Let me say a few words about our shareholders who could not be here:

• Our partners in New York, Waterford Partners, a leading fund management company in America, and its President, Edward Bozaan could not attend. He already has substantial investments in Bangladesh and has been to Dhaka in the past year.
• Beyond that, we have other partners in London, Liechtenstein, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong who send their best regards.

Investing in brokerages and investment firms in emerging markets is normally a trying affair. However, I have been pleasantly surprised with the straight forward, gregarious, engaging nature of the market regulators, the DSE and the SEC. They have been most supportive of our planned activities, and the granting of necessary licences and permission thus far is akin to the brokerage equivalent of the speed of light!

With such adept market regulators, and a sustainable pro-business environment, I am very confident of the pace of local capital market development. We wish to play a role in that - we hope to funnel foreign interest into both the primary and secondary markets in Bangladesh. We wish to work with key local business franchise owners, and introduce them to cross-border opportunities, that they have found hard to cultivate by themselves. At the same time, we see ourselves as a bridge for foreign investors to local business possibilities. By being the Bangladesh representatives of Auerbach Grayson, a New York based brokerage firm with a presence in 74 countries, we have the largest reach of any brokerage house in Bangladesh. And through their investment banking partners, Fieldstone Private Capital Group, I believe that we are positioned to help finance the leading corporate houses of Bangladesh in pursuit of their goals.

We feel that the timing is right, and the markets willing, for a venture such as this.

Once again, Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, thank you for attending this evening, and we look forward to much positive engagement between EPL and the private sector, so many representatives of which are represented here tonight.

Thank You.

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