Open letter to Hans Haider

Wien (OTS) -

Dear Mr. Haider,

You advertise in different ads and with the money of shareholders
to get the support of MIP investors. Let us recapitulate the events
from the point of view of investors since the last shareholders’
meeting.

As a confidence-building measure, you contracted the investment
bank Lazard to serve as your consultant. It is the same investment
bank which advised Meinl Bank on the MEL/Gazit deal, and which
developed the fairness option for the purchase of the management
company, which belongs to Meinl Bank and Mr. Grasser. It is therefore
hardly surprising that the price of EUR 32 million is so high, and
not justified by any means in economic terms. How much of shareholder
funds will the friendly activities of Lazard cost, and do you see
this as the right step to terminate your business relationship to
Meinl Bank? As a next step, are you going to present a rich sheikh
from Arabia or a generous oligarch from Russia as the savior of the
shareholders who have suffered losses?

You say that whoever votes in your favour will help to end the
business relationship with Meinl Bank and Karl-Heinz Grassser. At the
same time, your manager Karl-Hienz Grasser avows his loyalty to Meinl
and says he wants to continue to work for MIP. And the Meinl Bank
board says it wants to continue managing MIP. Whose word can one
believe?

Before the public presentation of the managers nominated by us,
you were invited to get to know them personally, in order to be able
to form a more objective opinion of their professional competence.
You did not attend at the date you agreed upon, but continue doubting
their competencies. You have failed to agree on a date to meet with
me, the representative of hundreds of shareholders.

You claim, the investor representatives are only exploting
investors, and would only help the hedge funds, which invested in the
company at a price of EUR 5, to dissolve the company and strip its
assets. To continue speaking in the same jargon which you use:

The truth is, only 1.5% of the share capital is being trading at
prices of EUR 5 or less. The truth is, at the last shareholders’
meeting, about 20% of the share capital voted with us, and as you
know, I already represented about 100 investors at that time. The
truth is, that the majority of the investors that I represent are
confronted with the shambles of their investments in this company,
since the issue price of EUR 10, and the damage that you and the
investment managers have caused.

Investors who demanded the shareholders’ meeting asked you not to
invest any more until the shareholders’ meeting was held. You
announced two new investments one week ago. One of them is in Italy,
and thus once again not in Eastern Europe. The MIP shareholders did
not learn about this from you, but by an ad-hoc announcement of the
company Phoenix Solar, which was published in accordance with stock
market regulations. Do you see this as a confidence-building measure
to your shareholders? Does this correspond to your idea of corporate
governance? Do you think it is fair and reasonable to conclude new
projects quickly before the important shareholders’ meetings on
Monday? In the future, will we also be informed about new projects of
your company from other companies? If you keep us in the dark about
these developments in such a situation, what can we expect from you
when the eyes of investors and the media are no longer focused on you
and your investment managers? Will we learn more in the future about
the hair style of the investment manager Karl-Heinz Grasser than
about his strategy to ensure the success of the company?

Although MIP and MAI do not have anything to do with each other
officially, the companies are holding their shareholders’ meetings at
practically the same time, at two different locations. Many thanks to
you for this. The application forms are also surprisingly identical.
Although you had weeks to prepare for the shareholders’ meetings, you
only gave shareholders five days to register. In contrast to past
practices, as at the last MIP shareholders’ meetings, shareholders
had to fill out complicated voting rights forms for the application.
Do you see this measure as a fair and respectful treatment of
shareholder interests?

At the MEL shareholders’ meetings a few days ago, shareholders
were not presented with a list of participants, contrary to
international standards. Neither the number of shareholders and votes
attending the meeting nor detailed voting results were announced. At
the upcoming shareholders’ meeting on Monday, can we expect the same
from you? At the MIP shareholders’ meeting held on May 14, 2008, both
the abovementioned information was conveyed without a problem.

Mr. Haider, we trusted you! We extended our hand to you in the
hopes of establishing a dialogue. Instead, you are trying to force
through your proposals at the expense of and the interests of many
shareholders. The shareholders’ meeting on Monday will have the right
response waiting for you.

Alexander Proschofsky

Rückfragehinweis:
Hochegger Financials
Ms. Stephanie Cekon
Tel.: +43-1-504 69 87-38
mailto:s.cekon@hochegger.com

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