Extraordinary General Meeting of Credito Valtellinese approves Capital Increase

Sondrio, Sat, November 15, 2003 - At the Extraordinary General Meeting of Credito Valtellinese held in Sondrio today, 1,769 shareholders have approved a capital increase plan through issue of new fully paid ordinary shares and a convertible bond issue. The main terms of the share capital increase are as follows:

A new ordinary share is being offered to holders of Credito Valtellinese shares for every 8 shares held. Issue price is € 6.900, of which € 3.000 nominal value and € 3.900 as paid-in surplus. € 0.10 will be paid as refunding of expenses for each newly subscribed share up to a maximum refunding amount of 150 euros.

Total amount of this capital increase is around € 50.7 million.

As regards the bond issue submitted, along with the capital increase, to the Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders for approval, below are the main characteristics of convertible bonds:

• Offerees: convertible bonds will be offered to holders of Credito Valtellinese shares on the basis of 1 bond for every 200 shares held;
• Total amount of convertible bond issue: total amount of bond issue is around € 293.7 million;
• Nominal value: € 1,000.00;
• Maturity: 3 years;
• Repayment: debenture debt is to be repaid in three years starting from 2005:
  • 30% of authorized issue will be repaid throughout 2005
  • 30% of authorized issue will be repaid throughout 2006
  • 40% of authorized issue will be repaid throughout 2007
• Conversion ratio: on maturity date bonds can be converted into a fixed number of Credito Valtellinese ordinary shares. Conversion ratio will be as follows:

Years	Tranche on maturity date	Number of newly issued shares
2005	€ 300.00	43
2006	€ 300.00	43
2007	€ 400.00	55
TOTAL	€ 1,000.00	141

Issue price and return on bonds subscribed are to be fixed shortly before bond issue.

Basically, the capital increase plan is aimed at implementing the business growth strategy of the parent bank (increases in the main balance-sheet aggregates, further development of banking network), as well as of the whole banking Group, by raising the necessary finance in the years to come.