Press release amendment: Ilmarinen acquires Aleksia

Press release amendment: Ilmarinen acquires Aleksia MeritaNordbanken and Ilmarinen, the Finnish pension insurance company, have today agreed on the purchase by Ilmarinen of the real estate company, Aleksia. The cash acquisition overrides the completion of the sale of Aleksia shares and its listing on the Helsinki Exchanges. MeritaNordbanken chose to accept Ilmarinen's bid due to the fact that the offering of Aleksia was not proceeding as expected. The agreement between MeritaNordbanken and Ilmarinen has the following components: *Ilmarinen acquires Aleksia in total for cash. The purchase price represents the value of the total share stock of Aleksia, EUR 370 M. *MeritaNordbanken buys back a few quality properties from Aleksia for EUR 145 M. *The consequences for Aleksia's personnel will be clarified in the collective negotation process with personnel. The sale of Aleksia represents a capital loss for MeritaNordbanken of EUR 40 M. In view of MeritaNordbanken's focus on concentrating on and expanding its core banking business and of the sluggish development of real estate shares in Finland, today's sale of Aleksia to Ilmarinen is the best option for MeritaNordbanken and its shareholders. The bank will continue to divest the Group's real estate holdings in accordance with its strategy. Further information: Pertti Voutilainen, Executive Vice President, tel. +358 500 225557 Markku Pohjola, Executive Vice President, tel. +358 9 165 422 45 Lars Thalén, Senior Vice President, tel. +358 46 8 614 79 51 Lauri Peltola, Press Relations Manager, tel- +358 50 324 1445 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/22/20000222BIT00910/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/22/20000222BIT00910/bit0002.pdf