OREANDA-NEWS. February 18, 2008. According to the ratings published on ofbu.investfunds.ru (yield ratings of open UIFs and GBMFs), GBMF Vechnye Tsennosti (Perpetual Values) posted the highest returns for January 2008 (+9,46%), reported the press-centre of Bank ZENIT.

General Bank Management Fund Vechnye Tsennosti (Perpetual Values) invests its customers' money into precious metals. The Fund's assets include both gold and silver derivatives and bullion. Free cash which is not used to secure futures contracts are invested into securities issued by the Russian Federation and fixed-income securities issued by foreign states with investment-grade or better ratings (at least BBB- in accordance with the Standard & Poor's classification).

"Due to its unique natural properties, gold has, for several millennia, been one of the most reliable means of value conservation, particularly when stock market prospects become relatively bleak. Incidentally, the first month of 2008 has seen gold steadily growing, while virtually all financial assets have been devaluating throughout the world," said Sergey Matyushin, Head, Asset Management Department, Bank ZENIT.

For detailed information on OJSC Bank ZENIT's GBMF Vechnye Tsennosti (Perpetual Values) go to invest.zenit.ru/ofbu/perpetuals/.

FOR REFERENCE:
Banking Group ZENIT relies on state-of-the-art banking technologies to offer a full scale of banking services to corporate and retail customers. According to Bank Group's IFRS consolidated accounts for the first half-year of 2007, it had US$675 mln in equity and US$5.53 bn in assets.

Members of the Banking Group:
OJSC Bank ZENIT (www.zenit.ru) is one of the country's 25 leading private finance and credit institutions in terms of assets, profit and equity (according to Rosbusinessconsulting and Expert RA Rating Agency). Provision of integrated corporate banking services is one of its core areas of operations. Bank ZENIT is actively involved in development and promotion of retail services, and offers its individual customers the full range of banking programs, including deposits, mortgage, consumer and car loans, bank cards, and safe deposit boxes. The Bank also has strong positions in the market for investment and private banking services. Bank ZENIT is rated by international rating agencies at Ba3/Stable (Moody's) and B/Positive (Fitch).

JSB "Devon-Credit" (OJSC) was established in 1992. Today it is one of the best retail and corporate banks in the Republic of Tatarstan. In 2005 OJSC Bank ZENIT and JSB "Devon-Credit" (OJSC) formed a Banking Group.

OJSC Lipetskkombank started up in 1964 as a municipal division of the State Bank of the USSR in the city of Lipetsk. In 1990 it was registered as a social development/construction commercial bank named Lipetskkombank. It joined Banking Group ZENIT in 2007.

Bank ZENIT Sochi (LLC) was founded in 1990 to provide a full spectrum of banking services. It joined the Banking Group ZENIT in 2007.