SPEECH BY ANDREW FRASER at the EPSL LAUNCHING CEREMONY

Mr. Chairman
Distinguished Members of the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges
Fellow Merchant Bankers
And Guests:

Good afternoon:
Thank you all for coming. It gives me great pleasure to be here, at the start of such an exciting new venture. I thank you all for taking the time to celebrate our founding with us today.

By the time we conclude our ceremony today, Equity Partners Securities Limited will begin its the newest corporate member of the Dhaka Stock Exchange. We will be offering brokerage services to local institutional and retail clients and also develop interest from various international institutional funds to participate in the local stock market.

Mr. Chairman, with your permission I would like to take the opportunity of introducing you to our Management Team: 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. Together they have been responsible, not only for initiating the thoughts leading to the firm we are unveiling today, but more importantly, for the rather more challenging task of putting thoughts into reality.

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.
• 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 already been to Dhaka in the past year.
• Beyond that, we have other partners in London, Abu Dhabi, Liechtenstein, Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong who send their best regards.

Whilst a good turnout for our launch, we'll see if we can improve the tally for our first anniversary next year - maybe a joint celebration with the market for the launching of operation of the Central Depository System!

It pleases me to be able to thank the market regulators for the support which they have offered thus far. The management team and shareholders have been impressed with the accommodating, pragmatic, and visionary attitude of both the DSE and the SEC. Both entities should continue to work hand-in-glove with brokers and the private sector to ensure rapid development and growth in the local capital markets.

This co-operation is especially true with regard to convincing owners of listed companies that written research and active brokerage coverage of them conveys their message to a wider audience.

On-going dialogue between corporates and brokers fosters greater transparency, which ultimately leads to better corporate governance. This is an aim which all regulators and investors share. The company owners themselves should also have this aim in mind - a better understood company, which is seen to have an engaging and open management style, will attract more investors, and consequently superior valuations, which will facilitate equity funding at levels favourable to the company. This will allow all of us to jointly work together to protect the interests of the minority shareholders.

I am also most pleased to be able to announce to you today that EPSL has forged a strategic partnership with Auerbach Grayson, a New York-based broker with the widest reach of any global broker in emerging markets, spanning 74 countries. For the first time, a co-ordinated flow of research and news on Bangladesh will be distributed to North American, European and Asian fund managers and investors.

We have been warmly accepted by the broker fraternity - I thank you all for that. We see EPSL not as competition for you, but as a catalyst for stimulating the entire market, and for projecting Bangladesh onto a wider global stage. We see value in your stock market and limitless potential for this market, one of the most emerging of all. We all, as brokers, must work together and support our own, if we are to share a common, prosperous future.

Before I conclude I would like to request our distinguished Chairman of Equity Partners Securities Limited, Mr. Mustafiz Ur Rahman, to say a few words. He is a former Finance Secretary, BOI Chairman and Member of the World Bank Board of Directors, who has honoured us by accepting the Chairmanship of Equity Partners Securities Limited.

Thank you very much for taking the time to attend this ceremony. We wish you a prosperous millenium year.

Good day.