KBC Groupe : to bring Antwerp-based employees under one roof again

Press release

Brussels, 10 August 2020 (3 p.m. CEST)

KBC to bring Antwerp-based employees

under one roof again

KBC employees who had been working in the KBC Tower until the Summer of 2018 are currently spread over eight different sites in the Antwerp region.

KBC has just signed a contract with Baloise Belgium NV to rent its Kievit IIb building, which had housed the former Fidea company (recently taken over by Baloise Belgium NV). The building is situated in the Delacenseriestraat in the renovated Kievit district of the city. In the spring of 2021, some 500 KBC employees will move to this contemporary and easily accessible building near Antwerp Central Station and be housed there for the remainder of the works in the KBC Tower.

In recent months, KBC has been working hard coordinating and leading the pre-contractual phase of the project to remediate, renovate and redevelop the KBC Tower in Antwerp.

• KBC has received a response from several specialised firms to the public tender for a full remediation of the building and will shortly start exclusive negotiations with a specialised company that will perform the thorough remediation work. KBC has requested and obtained an integrated environmental permit from the city of Antwerp and will also be responsible for the day-to-day monitoring and continuous quality control of the asbestos remediation operations to ensure that the highest standards are met under all circumstances.
• The proposals that KBC received from various professional property developers for the redevelopment and/or sale of the KBC Tower will be submitted for advice to the City of Antwerp, the Antwerp City Architect and the Flanders Heritage Agency. KBC will start contract discussions with one of these redevelopers/potential buyers later this year.

KBC hopes to finalise the negotiations by early 2021 so that the works can start in the spring of 2021.

Background

At the end of 2019 (press release of 4 December 2019), KBC invited tenders for a full remediation of the building by a specialised asbestos removal company. KBC also invited tenders for the day-to-day monitoring

Page 1 of 2

and continuous quality control of the asbestos remediation works to ensure that the highest standards are met under all circumstances. In addition, KBC explored the option of entering into a possible partnership and considered the possibility of having a property developer redevelop the KBC Tower, instead of KBC remaining as its owner, remediating it and making further renovations to it.

Due to Covid-19 safety measures, on-site visits were not permitted for quite some time earlier this year. KBC gave the interested parties a little more time to visit the site and/or to carry out additional destructive investigation so they could make a robust analysis under the best possible conditions and submit a high- quality and well-founded tender.

KBC Group NV	Press Office	KBC press releases are available at
Havenlaan 2 - 1080 Brussels	Tel. +32	2 429 65 01 Stef Leunens	www.kbc.comor can be obtained by sending an
	Tel. +32	2 429 29 15 Ilse De Muyer	[e-mail]
Viviane Huybrecht	Tel. +32	2 429 32 88 Pieter Kussé	Follow us onwww.twitter.com/kbc_group
General Manager
Corporate Communication /Spokesperson	E-mail:[e-mail]	Stay up-to-date on all innovative solutions
Tel. [phone]

Page 2 of 2