Sponda Plc Press Release 22 September 2010, 9:45 a.m. Finnish property market on the rise With low interest rates, stability in the Nordic economies and consumer confidence on a record high level, Finnish property market is on its way to recovery, concluded the speakers at the Sponda Capital Markets Day in Helsinki on, Tuesday 21 September. Property investment company Sponda Plc has been increasing cash flow by improving occupancy rates and through active portfolio management, told Kari Inkinen, the CEO of Sponda Plc. Also, the company will be looking for new investments in both Finnish and Russian markets. Sponda estimates that the positive development in occupancy rates, which started in Q2 2010, will continue for the rest of 2010 and values of the prime properties are expected to go up. Penna Urrila from the Confederation of Finnish Industries stated that the growth figures of this year in Finland will be higher than forecasted, and with a reasonable exchange rate, relatively stable labour market, low interest rates and consumers' optimistic expectations, the business outlook is relatively favorable. Peter Rostrup-Nielsen, CRO from the Danske Bank, said there are indications of macroeconomic improvement, but higher capitalisation is required to boost the economy. All the Nordic banks passed the EU stress test and the new regulation is intended to lead to more and better capital and increased disclosure. Timo Ritakallio from the mutual pension insurance company Ilmarinen, the second largest owner and a long-term share holder of Sponda, told the investment returns of Ilmarinen to be 3.7% in January - June 2010. Ilmarinen is planning to increase the property investment share from the current 10 per cent to the level of 15 per cent in the near future, with the inflation pressure and rising rental rates giving more reasons to invest in real estate. In the Moscow City area, there is planned development with over 4,000,000 m2 office space scheduled to be completed in the next five years, told Christopher Peters from CB Richard Ellis in Moscow. Even with low occupancy rate, the rental rates show signs of steady growth in the prime sector. Webcast and presentations of the day are available at www.sponda.fi. Sponda Plc Further information: Kari Inkinen, President and CEO, tel. +358 400 402 653 Sponda Plc is a property investment company specializing in commercial properties in the largest cities in Finland and 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 2.8 billion and the leasable area is around 1.5 million m².