BEKO, the leading international brand of Arçelik Group in consumer durables and consumer electronics, gave its name to the German Basketball League, by becoming the new main sponsor of “Basketball Bundesliga”. With the start of the season 2009/2010, the German Basketball League will be played under “Beko Basketball Bundesliga” (BEKO BBL). With this agreement BEKO, which is being sold in more than 100 countries worldwide, will also be the sponsor of BBL All-Star Day, BBL Top Four and BBL Champions Cup.

Speaking at the press conference held in Frankfurt-Germany on September 29th 2009, the CEO of Arçelik A.Ş. Levent Çakıroğlu said: We believe that the “dynamic, enjoyable and youthful” character of the Beko brand, which we offer in more than 100 countries in the international market, matches with the nature of basketball. Beko started to invest in basketball in 2006 with its sponsorship for the Turkish Basketball League. The league has been played under the name “Beko Basketball League” for 3 years. With our main sponsorships to 2009 FIBA Asian Basketball Championship in China and Eurobasket 2009 in Poland, which were held recently, we took our support for basketball to international platform. Lastly, we carried our investments in basketball to the highest level, by becoming the “Presenting Sponsor” of the 2010 World Basketball Championship, which is organized every four years, and which will bring the strongest teams of the world together. Now, with Beko, we are embarking on a long - standing cooperation with Basketball Bundesliga, one of the most important leagues in the world. Çakıroğlu added: Our cooperation with Basketball Bundesliga offers us a perfect opportunity for Beko brand to communicate effectively with its target audience. Thanks to this cooperation, we aim to develop our operations in Germany, to reach more consumers and increase our brand awareness.

The General Manager of the BEKO Basketball Bundesliga, Jan Pommer commented: We are extremely happy to present BEKO as the main and name sponsor. They have set a target with us to make the league and the name BEKO in Germany more popular. and continued: We are convinced that the cooperation to a winning situation will be reached. The dynamic and technical demanding type of sport, suits excellently to the first class and high quality product of the brand BEKO.

The first match under “BEKO Basketball Bundesliga” will be played on Saturday, 3rd of October 2009 between the German champion EWE Baskets Oldenburg and the runner-up Telekom Baskets Bonn in the Oldenburger EWE ARENA. The match will begin at 7:30 p.m. BEKO will not only be advertised on the ground and on the tricots with the new corporate BEKO BBL-logo, but also rotation advertising boards with BEKO will run. From the first day of play BEKO will be present in all of the 18 arenas of the BEKO BBL, especially on the players tricots, at the rotation advertising boards, the backboards and on plackets stuck on the ground. Even the Spalding ball will carry the co-branded logo in the near future.