ALTIN unveils strong 2002/03 performance figures

At the AGM, shareholders approved a proposal by the Board of Directors to reduce ALTIN’s capital, currently standing at approx. US$231 million, by returning a portion to shareholders in Fall 2003.

ALTIN revealed that its listing on the London Stock Exchange, which took place on 31 December 2001, has helped enlarge the shareholder base and improve liquidity in the shares.

ALTIN’s share price registered significant growth: +0.65% in 2002 and
+11.92% in the year to 24 June 2003.  And the average monthly volume of shares traded has nearly doubled in the course of this year.

As a result of these different developments, the share price has risen more
sharply than the NAV, which has allowed for the discount to narrow. This discount, which at its highest level last year reached 18 per cent, was
10.43 per cent as of 24 June 2003.

Following the Annual General Meeting of 2001, the Board had announced
its desire to reduce the discount to below 10 per cent by the 2003 AGM. If
this were not achieved, the Board had announced a return of capital to
shareholders.

The average discount in the last three months on the Swiss Stock Exchange, which is the determining criteria, was 10.15 per cent, which is 0.15 per cent above the 10 per cent threshold. ALTIN’s Board of Directors has therefore proposed to return capital to shareholders, through a reduction in the
shares’ nominal value. This proposal was accepted by 83.4 per cent of votes at the AGM and shareholders will receive CHF 6.00 per share. The nominal value of each share will therefore now be CHF 17.00 (previously CHF 23.00), and
ALTIN’s share capital will now be CHF 84,415,166 (previously CHF
114,208,754). As previously noted, this payment is scheduled for Fall 2003.

On the investment performance front ALTIN has comfortably outperformed the equity benchmarks, producing a +5.75 per cent increase in NAV (net of fees) in 2002 and an estimated +5.32 per cent increase in NAV in the year to 16 June 2003, resulting in a cumulative performance of +11.38 per cent over the period.

This compares to the MSCI World Index cumulative return of -9.99 per cent for the same period. This performance was obtained with a significantly lower level of risk, with ALTIN’s volatility in 2002 at 6.78 per cent compared to a volatility of 16.81 per cent for the MSCI World Index.

The various alternative strategies in which ALTIN is invested produced
the following gross returns: Global Macro +22.2 per cent in 2002 and +8.64 per cent in the year to 13 June 2003, Long/Short Equity -0.99 per cent and +1.69 per cent for the same periods respectively and Relative Value +10.56 per cent and +7.42 per cent for the same periods respectively.

ALTIN continues to favour strategies which function independently of movements in equity markets. As of 31 May 2003, the ALTIN portfolio was mostly invested in Arbitrage/Relative Value (43 per cent of assets), Macro & CTA (26 per cent of assets) and Long/Short Equity (21 per cent of assets). Since the beginning of the year, the allocation to Macro & CTA has increased whilst the allocation to Long/Short Equity has decreased. The allocation to Arbitrage/Relative Value has remained stable.

Background Note: ALTIN AG was founded in December 1996, and is listed on the Swiss and London stock exchanges. It is one of Switzerland’s leading alternative investment companies. ALTIN AG currently invests in some 30 hedge funds pursuing a variety of investment strategies. ALTIN’s aim is to
generate an absolute compound annual return in USD terms, with a lower
volatility than equity markets.

ALTIN is managed by 3A -Alternative Asset Advisors, a specialist alternative investment manager, belonging to the SYZ & CO Group. Geneva-based SYZ & CO specialises in asset management, focusing on performance and alternative investment solutions. Since its creation in 1995, the company has been highly successful, and the company currenlty manages assets of USD 4.2 billion, and has 140 employees in 9 cities.

SYZ & CO’s activities fall into three categories: private banking, a range of high-performance investment funds (OYSTER) registered in seven European countries, and a range of alternative investment products.