AURELIUS Equity Opportunities & : Donation drive at the Christmas party raises EUR270,000 for the AURELIUS Refugee Initiative

Munich, 23 December 2017 - At this year's AURELIUS Christmas party, employees and the Executive Board donated more than EUR 270,000 to AURELIUS Refugee Initiative e.V. (http://aureliusinvest.de/en/aurelius-refugee-initiative/). The association founded in 2015 aims to support refugees on their path to a better life by means of a long-term aid programme.

This involvement is set to see further significant expansion in 2018, particularly with projects to integrate refugees in Germany. To this end, the initiative will for example support an integration measure in Munich whereby asylum-seekers are helped prepare for the primary labour market through various further education and training measures.

'Language and education are the cornerstones for successful integration, because they help people who come to us as refugees to take an active part in our society and make an independent future for themselves', says Dr. Dirk Markus, CEO of AURELIUS. 'For the coming year, we will be very specially dedicated to the topic of integration in our country. We will, however, continue to support projects in crisis regions, where even many more people are fleeing and in need than here in Germany.'

In addition, the AURELIUS Refugee Initiative will take part in early 2018 in setting up the activities for the START Foundation in Bavaria. START is a scholarship programme for school-goers who have only been living in Germany for a few years. It has already supported over 700 talented young people with an immigration and refugee background with scholarships and helped them to complete their schooling successfully. With partners like AURELIUS, START should in future also be able to support young refugees and new arrivals to Bavaria with their education.

Various projects were already implemented successfully in 2017:

Plant-a-Talent

Plant-a-Talent (http://plant-a-talent.org) is a not-for-profit organisation that gives refugees access to the employment market in Munich and - depending on the requirements profile - places them with suitable companies that have vacant positions. Plant-a-Talent has a pool of approximately 500 highly motivated and qualified job candidates in Munich. The company has already been able to fill more than 125 job vacancies successfully. The AURELIUS Refugee Initiative is supporting Plant-a-Talent with an initial donation of EUR 25,000.

Language courses for refugees in Munich by Studienkreis

Through the former AURELIUS group subsidiary Studienkreis and funded by the AURELIUS Refugee Initiative, free German classes for refugee children were offered at four schools in Munich in 2017.

AURELIUS School for Syrian refugee children in Turkey

AURELIUS Refugee Initiative e.V. will fund a school for Syrian refugees in western Turkey. The new AURELIUS School will be run locally by Avicenna Kultur- und Hilfswerk e.V. and will provide tuition for 50 refugee children. Classes in Arabic and mathematics should provide the Syrian civil war refugees with better educational prospects near to their home country of Syria. There will also be Turkish language classes as well as evening classes for up to 25 women.

House of Learning in Lebanon

Since early 2017, the initiative has been supporting the 'Haus des Lernens' (House of Learning) project by Orienthelfer e.V. in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon with funds of around EUR 65,000. The money is intended to finance school tuition for 130 pupils aged between six and nine for one year. This corresponds to an annual budget of about EUR 500 per child. The 'Haus des Lernens' is situated about 20 kilometres from the Syrian border. The improved educational prospects for their children are intended to encourage Syrian refugee families to remain close to their home country of Syria.

For further information: http://aureliusinvest.de/aurelius-refugee-initiative/

AURELIUS Refugee Initiative e.V.

Employees and the Executive Board of AURELIUS Holding established the charitable association 'AURELIUS Refugee Initiative e.V.' at the end of 2015. The association is financed by donations from employees and the Executive Board of AURELIUS. The aim of the association is to sponsor various aid projects that provide humanitarian aid and financial support to refugees on their path to a safer life.

http://aureliusinvest.de/en/aurelius-refugee-initiative/

Contact: ari@aureliusinvest.com