On June 30, 2023, BAWAG Group announced that Petrus Advisers published a report on the Company, and it generally appreciate investor feedback, however, in this particular case it disagrees with the report and would highlight the following: The content of the report is inconsistent, out of context, and misleading and tt is also inconsistent with Petrus Advisers? view of the Bank until very recently. The Bank stated that the report discloses that Petrus Advisers has built up a short position in Bank stock, which may explain the economic motivation and the overall credibility of the report.

Bank is active in a highly regulated market and under direct supervision of the European Central Bank. Maintaining a top-flight governance structure forms an integral part of BAWAG?s strategy to ensure long-term sustainable profitability. The Bank also stated that in terms of shareholder returns, it has distributed more than ?2 billion of capital to shareholders and outperformed the European bank indices since its IPO in 2017.

In addition, the Company stated that over the last decade, the Company?s average Return on Tangible Common Equity (RoTCE) has been ~15% and we target >20% for 2023, which makes it one of the most profitable and efficient banks in Europe.