In order to maintain contact with existing investors and introduce the Deutsche EuroShop share to new investor groups as an attractive investment, the Executive Board and Investor Relations team once more held a large number of roadshows and attended capital market conferences in 2008.
The focus of our roadshow activities was on the European financial centres, with visits to Frankfurt, London, Paris and Zurich. However, we also presented Deutsche EuroShop again in cities that at first glance are not in the top league of stock exchanges: In Hamburg, Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Stockholm, Vaduz and Vienna we held talks with institutional investors such as fund and portfolio managers and informed them about the current business development of Deutsche EuroShop. One trip took us to New York and Chicago in the USA as well as to Canada where we scheduled meetings in Montreal.
The roadshows are organised by various banks which carry out a precise analysis in advance to ascertain which customers have already invested or can be considered potential investors and have prepared specific questions for the company. Getting to know the management of a company personally often acts as a decisive investment criterion for this target group. Up to ten individual and/or group events are held during a roadshow on any one day. The Deutsche EuroShop team is often accompanied on such trips by representatives of the organising bank such as analysts and account executives.
We also make use of the opportunity to attend capital market conferences to which we are invited throughout the year by various investment companies. Professional investors like to attend these events as they enable them to come into contact with representatives of many companies at a single venue on the same day. In addition to hosting corporate presentations for interested audiences, the conferences also provide us with the opportunity to provide in-depth and targeted answers to the questions put forward by investors and analysts at socalled one-on-one meetings.
In 2008, we introduced Deutsche EuroShop at conferences in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, London, Milan and New York.
However, many investors from Germany and abroad also visited us at our headquarters in Hamburg and put their questions about the company directly to the Executive Board. We often made use of this opportunity and subsequently showed our guests the Phoenix-Center in order to provide them with an insight into the high quality of our portfolio.
Altogether, we held 21 road shows last year and visited 12 conferences, which enabled us to meet individually with over 350 investors and analysts.
We also aim to maintain and enhance the close contact with our investors in 2009. To this end we plan once again to hold various roadshows and attend capital market conferences. You will find some dates on page 145 in our financial calendar. You can also keep up to date with our investor relations activities at all times on our website at www.deutsche-euroshop.com/ir.