Saxo Bank Makes New Appointments to its Board

New Additions to Drive Bank's Onward Development

GENTOFTE--In connection with its ordinary accounting meeting, the major shareholders in Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, nominated three new board members to be elected at the annual general meeting on 6 April.

-Nominated to new Chairman of the Board is Kurt K. Larsen. Larsen was CEO of the international transport group DSV for many years and is the group's Chairman today.

-Professor Thomas Plenborg, PhD, from the Department of Accounting and Auditing at Copenhagen Business School was also nominated to the Board. Professor Plenborg's primary research areas are market based accounting research, financial statement analysis and firm valuation.

-The last nominee is, Isabel Ferreira, Managing Director of the Portuguese online wealth management bank, BEST, part of the Banco Espirito Santo Group (BES Group), having the financial services group Espirito Santo Financial Group (ESFG) as its parent company.

They replace the current Chairman Henrik Thufason as well as Attorney-at-law John Korsø Jensen and former Head of Foreign Exchange and Structured Products at Citigroup, Julian Simmonds, who are not seeking re-election and therefore all, will leave the Board.

Saxo Bank's two founders, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, who still have the controlling interest in Saxo Bank, said in a joint statement: "We are very grateful for the hard professional work the soon-to-be former board members have dedicated towards Saxo Bank. Over the last ten years, Henrik Thufason and John Korsø Jensen have helped us to build Saxo Bank from a minor FX specialist to a leading international bank within trading, investment and savings. Equally important, Julian Simmonds has contributed his vast knowledge of the institutional currency markets over the past four years.

"The new Board will benefit from the fresh input not least from BES Group, which, alongside the EFSG, now owns 10 per cent of the bank. We believe that the new composition will further enable us in the onward development of Saxo Bank."

Saxo Bank's board of directors will now comprise:
Kurt K. Larsen (Chairman)
Dennis Malamatinas (Vice Chairman)
Florian Wendelstadt
Isabel Ferreira
Professor Thomas Plenborg

Fournais Holding A/S and Lars Seier Christensen Holding A/S owns 30 per cent each of Saxo Bank, EFSG and BES Group together holds 9.9 since December 2009, and General Atlantic has 22 per cent ownership in the Bank. The remaining interest is primarily held by a number of current and former employees of Saxo Bank.