Sponda to build office building for Evli in City-Center complex Real estate investment company Sponda Plc and Evli Bank Plc have signed the lease for an office building to be built in the City-Center complex in Helsinki. Evli Bank Plc will concentrate its head office functions in the new building that will be completed in summer 2010. The office building, with a floor space of 4200 square metres, is being leased in its entirety to Evli Bank Plc. Construction work on the office block, which will rise in the heart of the City-Center property, will start at the beginning of 2009. The new building is part of Sponda's City-Center project, for which the total investment value is estimated at some EUR 110 million. The first phase, renovating the underground basement facilities and part of the commercial premises on the first and second floor, was completed in May 2007. The whole project is expected to be ready in 2011. “The new office building relates to the expansion of the City-Center commercial and office premises. After the renovation the property will provide a total of 55,600 square metres of leasable premises. The lease signed now will make it possible to complete the renovation of City-Center complex on the planned scale, keeping to the original schedule,” states Kari Inkinen, President and CEO of Sponda Plc. “This is the ideal solution for our operations and customer service. We can continue at our current address in the heart of the city, but still enjoy the benefits of new, modern office premises. City-Center will enable us to carry out our growth strategy in the long term,” says Maunu Lehtimäki, CEO of Evli Bank Plc. Sponda Plc Further information: Sponda Plc Ossi Hynynen, Senior Vice President, Office and Retail Premises Tel. +358 400-701 030 Evli Bank Plc Maunu Lehtimäki, Chief Executive Officer Tel. +358 50-553 3000 Sponda Plc is a real estate company specializing in commercial properties in the largest cities in Finland and in Russia. Sponda's business concept is to own, lease and develop office, retail and logistics properties into environments that promote the business success of its clients. The fair value of Sponda's investment properties is approximately EUR 2.3 billion euros and the leasable area is around 1.3 million m². Sponda is the largest real estate investment company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Evli Bank Plc is an independent investment bank whose clients are entrepreneurs, corporate executives and investment professionals. Evli's primary market is the Baltic Sea region. In this area, the company operates in Finland, Sweden, the Baltic countries and Poland. Evli also has offices in Luxembourg and through its joint venture Nordic Partners, Inc. in New York. Evli Group's equity capital totals EUR 65.6 million and the BIS capital adequacy ratio stood at 15.7% on 30 June 2007. Evli Group employs approximately 340 people, with some 240 of these working at the Helsinki office.