Announcement relating Robeco Private Equity Certificate (EUR)

ANNOUNCEMENT

Announcement relates to the underlying investments of the Robeco Private Equity Certificate (EUR), which are:

Robeco European Private Equity (REPE I)
Robeco Global Private Equity (RGPE I)
Robeco European Private Equity II (REPE II)
Robeco Global Private Equity II (RGPE II)
Robeco Private Equity Opportunities (RPEO)

The performance of the Robeco Private Equity Certificate is linked to the Robeco Private Equity Basket, which contains five underlying Robeco private equity funds-of-funds (the ‘Underlying Funds’).The indicative book value of the Certificate is calculated by taking into account the most recent book values of the Underlying Funds in the Robeco Private Equity Basket. These book values are issued by the Underlying Funds once every month and are based on the net asset values as they are quarterly reported by the private equity funds in their portfolios. We herewith release an intermediary update of the preliminary figures for 2008.

Report from the investment manager of the underlying investments

In 2008, the private equity industry experienced a period of difficult market conditions. The impact of the economic downturn and financial crisis on the private equity industry was reflected in a lack of debt funding available for new deals, a challenging operating environment and resulting pressure on earnings, poor exit conditions, and a significant downward pressure on valuations.

Given the market conditions and the time it will take to present the audited 2008 financial statements for Robeco’s private equity funds of funds (expected to be released in June 2009), we would like to share with you the preliminary 2008 results for the fund(s) in which you have invested. The following table shows the change in unrealized value during the year. The last column shows the percentage of underlying private equity funds that have provided us with year-end 2008 figures. Because not all funds have been able to provide us with the audited year-end figures yet, the final audited 2008 performance results may deviate from the figures as presented below.

2008 has been a difficult year for private equity. However, it should be noted that the downward revaluations are partly due to the adoption of new valuation guidelines, specifically Financial Accounting Standard 157 in the United States. These new valuation guidelines require private equity holdings to be valued such that they reflect the values of publicly traded comparable companies. With global public markets having declined by more than 40% in 2008 (based on the MSCI World Equity Total Return Index), this has had a negative impact on the valuations of private equity investments as well.

We anticipate that the period to come will remain challenging for private equity and we do not exclude the possibility of further write downs in the period to come. However, we believe that the current write downs are not always a fair representation of the true value of the underlying companies. Overall we are confident about the quality of our private equity portfolios, which in our opinion are well-positioned to endure market uncertainties with the potential to build value and ultimately generate attractive returns for our investors.