Following press speculations and potential CNB investigation the company yesterday published an official statement saying that the management did not have any information indicating a loss for the year 2007 prior to the stock exchange floatation. The company explained that the EUR 8m net profit for 2007 it guided during the IPO process in August was based on the financial results for the 1H07 and their year-to-year growth. The deterioration came only in 2H07 and came from: In 3Q07 - opening 5 branches bringing a significant growth of operating costs - roll-out of few other branches was delayed - problem with acquiring sufficient of qualified staff, in particular for the management posts in Poland, Romania and Hungary - In 4Q07 - opening of 8 branches - further problems with staff both for sales and for middle and higher management positions - higher marketing costs introduced to support falling sales - extraordinary costs – implementation of new accounting and reporting system Navision in the Czech Republic In both quarters, due to lack of sufficient qualified people the best salespeople were used to train the new personnel in the new branches. As a result average sales per branch in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where these managers were coming from, dropped. Lower sales and higher costs had destructive effect on the company financials. The company also stated that it has already adopted measures to improve the situation including: - optimization of the car stock in branches - optimization of the job position in branches - optimization of the branches in the group