Akro Investicni Spolecnost, A.S. (Czech Republic)

Jiří Trávníček, CEO of AKRO, explains how investors benefit from AKRO's independence. A report * published by the World Bank in 2004 summed up the situation in the Czech Republic: "… there are serious concerns about the independence of corporate investment fund depositaries or (investment) fund managers. Over 95% of all collective investment assets are managed by only four investment firms. While these companies are separately established as joint stock companies, each of them also acts as both a broker-dealer and a depository of the funds they manage. ” The World Bank team found that "individual investment companies (managers) direct the vast majority of their business to the parent bank's broker-dealer, and at the same time each company uses the parent bank as its depositary." AKRO, as one of the few independent investment companies, does not have to face conflicts of interest as it is not part of any financial conglomerate. Our specialists negotiate with third parties very advantageous rates for fees for fund services (eg custody **) and trading fees (eg crown exchange and share purchase). The advantage of our independence is not only the minimization of costs, ie the possibility of negotiating the amount of fees, but also the rejection of poor quality service in trading. As already mentioned, high fees reduce the return on your investment. To illustrate, our agreed transaction fees are almost 5 times smaller than those that banks pay for themselves! We at AKRO strive to ensure that the appreciation of our investments is reflected as much as possible in the appreciation of your shares. Our independence also means that we do not have, nor do we seek, banking or corporate financial relationships with the companies in which we have invested. In addition, AKRO does not have its own purchasing department that would also purchase securities for AKRO, which could lead to a conflict of interest in purchasing the same shares for the funds in which AKRO's clients have invested their money.