IRF is pleased to announce that yesterday it acquired 29,020,191 treasury shares from MPB, a commercial banking group listed on the Athens Exchange, for approximately €226.35 million in cash.  The purchase was concluded at €7.80 per share, representing a discount of  (i) 4.2% to the €8.14 closing price of 26 March 2007 and (ii) 2.5% to the €8.00 closing price on 23 March 2007.  In total, the shares purchased represent approximately a 3.76% interest in MPB.

This acquisition was partially funded from the $237.7 million gross proceeds of the recent private warrant program.  In addition, IRF has funded acquisitions of MPB stock with an aggregate of €100 million from a credit facility arranged with a commercial bank.

As a result of this acquisition, IRF now owns approximately 41.4 million shares of MPB, representing an interest of approximately 5.36% of MPB's outstanding shares as of 31 December 2006.  IRF's current intention is to hold the minority stake for income generation and capital appreciation.

MPB is the result of a merger between Marfin Financial Group, Egnatia and Cyprus Popular Bank which occurred in the last quarter of 2006. Currently, MPB is a significant bank in both Greece and Cyprus, with diversified banking interests in the retail, commercial and investment banking sectors, and has a market capitalisation of approximately €6.28 billion.