BNP Paribas Provides Los Angeles World Airports Direct Letter of Credit Facility.

SAN FRANCISCO -- BNP Paribas today announced that it had provided Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) a 5 year $163,500,000 direct pay letter of credit facility to support LAWA's subordinate commercial paper (CP) program and a 5 year $82,006,543 direct pay letter of credit facility to support LAWA's subordinate lien GARB program. Both facilities provide credit enhancement and liquidity support.

Commenting on the transaction, Mitchell Ozawa, Managing Director in the Public Finance group said, "The letter of credit facilities we provide to LAX are the largest ever provided to the Airport by a single bank. The transaction replaces credit facilities provided by five banking institutions and clearly demonstrates the bank's firm commitment to the public sector."

LAWA is an independent and financially self-sufficient department of the City of Los Angeles. It is an airport system comprised of four separate airports. LAWA owns and operates Los Angeles International airport, Ontario International airport, Van Nuys airport and Palmdale regional airport.

LAX is the world's fifth busiest passenger airport and ranks sixth in air cargo tonnage handled. In 2004, more than 60 million people traveled through LAX, which is also the number one international gateway to Asia/Pacific and is served by nearly 90 passenger and cargo airlines.

Kelly Fowler, Managing Director and Head of BNP Paribas' Public Finance group noted "We were very pleased to be part of this important financing. BNP Paribas Public Finance has consistently demonstrated the ability to manage large transactions for high profile U.S. Municipal enterprises."

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in banking and financial services, with a significant and growing presence in the United States and leading positions in Asia. The most profitable bank in the Euro zone, it has a presence in 85 countries with close to 100,000 employees. The group enjoys key positions in Corporate and Investment Banking, Private Banking & Asset Management, Insurance, Securities Services and Retail Banking.

BNP Paribas provides a full array of financial products through a portfolio of brands that cover a variety of distribution channels. With offices in New York, BNP Paribas in North America offers a broad range of corporate, investment banking and securities brokerage activities. With locations in all the major corporate and financial centers across the United States and Canada, BNP Paribas in North America serves a world-class client base of multinational corporate and mid-cap companies, major issuers and institutional buyers. As a registered member of the NYSE, a NASD broker-dealer and member of SIPC, BNP Paribas Securities Corp. trades and markets a vast array of global and domestic fixed income and equity products