ADVISORY/ Defaulted, Distressed Debt Totals Reach All-Time High; Dr. Edward Altman to discuss latest report in DistressDebt.com forum.

Business Editors

ADVISORY... for Tuesday (Aug. 15)

WHO: DistressDebt.com (www.distressdebt.com), an online web site to
    serve the insolvency, credit and special situation communities, is
    hosting an interactive online forum to introduce the latest report
    by Dr. Edward I. Altman and host a discussion among industry
    leaders on the defaulted and distressed debt market. Dr. Altman is
    the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance at the Leonard N. Stern
    School of Business at New York University, the Vice Director of
    the NYU Salomon Center and Chairman of the DistressDebt.com
    Advisory Board.

WHAT: Among the key findings, Dr. Altman estimates the size of the
    defaulted and distressed market (as of July 31, 2000) to have
    reached record-high levels. During the DistressDebt.com Forum, Dr.
    Altman will reveal these figures for the first time and discuss
    the primary factors leading to this unprecedented total.

WHEN: The DistressDebt.com Forum will be conducted on Tuesday, August
    15, 2000 at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

WHERE: In order to participate in the DistressDebt.com Forum,
    participants should log onto www.distressdebt.com using the
    following information:

    User ID:  Forum
    Password:  abc123
    Conference Call No.:  1-800-370-0869

Key results from the report will be made available on DistressDebt.com at the time of the forum.