The starting point for this development is over 25 years ago in the Munich stock exchange. There, on the 1 July 1983, the Baader story begins with the accreditation of Mr. Uto Baader as a stock broker, whose order book consisted of only three shares: the North American Western American Telephone & Telegraph, Communications Satellite Corp. and Westinghouse Electric.

The sole trader prospered quickly nonetheless and the main reason for this is the fact that Uto Baader found an underdeveloped niche in the German market, the market of foreign shares, and filled it. These early origins, sensing potential areas of growth at the right time and contributing to building them up into a veritable market, remain the core values of the company today.

By the time of the company's entry into the stock exchange in Stuttgart – at the time of the October 1987 crash - Baader had become a pioneer in the trading of foreign shares in Germany, a business which requires special skills in the acquisition of shares and the settlement of transactions as well as in handling currency differences.

Baader's many years of unrivalled expertise is one of the reasons why it remains the leading German broker in foreign shares today.

Supporting DB-Soft AG through their public offering in 1993, Baader extended its business activities beyond specialist activities for the first time. It has since become an independent business segment, where specialist support is offered in going public, public bids, placements, capital measures, takeover bids as well as squeeze-outs for small and mid caps.

With the acquisition of the listed Ballmaier & Schulz Wertpapier AG and the merging of the two companies two years later, Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG is formed. With this one move, Baader not only moves in on the Frankfurt floor, but in one fell swoop moves up to being the leading broker company in Germany. With DM 150 million of shareholders’ equity, the foundation is laid for further growth and the company's strong equity position today.

The company's broader positioning and its strong equity benefits the company not only during the bull market at the time of the turn of the millennium when Baader achieves its best result to date. But also in the following bad years on the stock exchange, the company’s equity cushion is solid enough to acquire a whole series of competitors, thus strengthening its own market position.

Through the purchase of Eckes Effektenhandel AG the company moves into the agency business. With the takeover of Meyenkoth & Co. Wertpapierhandelsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin, Baader for the first time gets its foot in the door of bond trading.

However Baader also revises some decisions which had proved less fortunate. Investments, the business segment taken up in 1999 is relinquished two years later. The existing portfolio is still managed to increase its value, which is realised in the middle-term. A subsidiary in Prague acquired in 1996 is also sold to a Czech investor six years later.

A new era now starts for Baader. The company, which up until now had been based in Munich, invests EUR 30 million in a new building together with state-of-the-art information technology and moves to Unterschleissheim, conveniently situated half way between the city and the airport. Even though it is at a time when the stock exchange is performing badly. From there Baader is directly linked to the stock exchanges in Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. With its outstanding transportation and IT infrastructure, combined with proximity to the Munich financial centre, Unterschleissheim is an excellent location.

The acquisition of Spütz Börsenservice GmbH, Frankfurt, leads to significant expansion of specialist activities for derivative products.

Through the acquisition of Sobota, Maier & Stopp Wertpapierhandels GmbH at the Munich Stock Exchange, bond trading is expanded further.

With the takeover of Jörg D. Reuter Wertpapierhandels GmbH, Baader also advances to market leader in specialist service for derivative products in Frankfurt. In the Scoach derivatives segment there, four out of five orders pass through Baader's books. Through additional takeovers in Frankfurt, specialist services in German shares are strengthened further.

Baader Service Bank GmbH originated from the Frankfurt-based fully licenced bank CK Trading Bank GmbH which is acquired in 2004. In the Service Bank business area, Baader puts together tailor-made global trading solutions on the large equities and futures exchanges for investment managers and institutional customers as well as professional futures traders. In addition, the services spectrum includes consultancy and support in design, planning and structuring single funds and fund of funds, public funds, certificates and managed accounts. In the context of these services Baader acts as an execution broker, investment manager and as a bank managing accounts and securities accounts. Overall, the role of the Baader Service Bank is that of a highly specialised service provider which offers the financial industry individual solutions for all matters related to securities trading.

Baader enters into a further area of business activity. With its investment in Conservative Concept Portfolio Management Group, Bad Homburg, whose core business area is in the design and implementation of alternative investment strategies, the range of services relating to futures and options is rounded off in the form of single hedge funds, managed accounts and certificates. With Baader Service Bank GmbH and the investment in Conservative Concept Portfolio Management Group, Baader is one of the largest independent service providers in the area of hedge funds in Germany.

Baader begins the year with the implementation of its overseas strategy, which focuses on establishing the foundations for additional growth outside Germany. An investment is made in Parsoli Corporation Ltd. in Bombay, a member of the National Stock Exchange of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange and their associated derivative exchanges.

Baader takes a strake in the biggest securities broker in Oman, the Gulf Baader Capital Markets S.A.O.C., Muscat, giving the company access to the capital markets in the Gulf states. The key rule of foreign investment is only to enter markets where there are very good prospects for growth niches and no comparable competitors.

A recent acquisition by Baader is that of Deutsche Börsenmakler GmbH (DBM), Frankfurt, at the beginning of 2008. With this strategic move, the company has enhanced its portfolio of traded securities types with the growth market of stock exchange traded actively managed funds, at the same time becoming the largest provider of specialist services in this area.

As a company whose claim is to set benchmarks in securities trading and related transaction business, Baader is successfully pursuing its strategy of several years relating to its core competency of securities trading, i.e. to offer supplementary or related capital market services, thus creating new sources of income. By following this objective, it has further extended its position as the leading specialist in securities trading and the largest securities brokerage company in Germany.

There are three key factors driving this success. Uto Baader has always placed strong emphasis on the ongoing development and training of his employees. It is not for nothing that Baader traders are known as being the best in the industry. Secondly, in good times the company accumulated an equity cushion which enabled it not only to survive hard times, but also to buy up competitors during these phases, thus emerging even stronger from weak market periods. Thirdly, Uto Baader has always valued high-performance inhouse information technology very highly. The combination of these three factors - motivated employees, a strong equity basis and a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure - means that Baader Bank feels itself well equipped for the next 25 years of the company's story.