Banco Comercial Portugus Acquires Stake in Achmea Bank Holding NV.

Business Editors

LISBON, Portugal--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 29, 1999

Achmea Holding NV (Achmea Group) and Banco Comercial Portugus (NYSE:BPC) announced today that BCP has acquired a 30% stake in Achmea Bank Holding NV, representing an investment of 44 billion Escudos (circa 220 million Euro).

Achmea Holding NV (Achmea Group) is a leading Dutch financial services group and a partner in Eureko, of which BCP is also a member. Achmea Bank Holding NV is part of the Achmea Group, handling all its banking activities, distributed in the Benelux countries under the brands of Staal Bankiers, Central Beher, FBTO, Avro, Zilveren Kruis, Woonfonds, Eduard de Graaff, Europabank (Belgium) and Banque Colbert (Luxembourg). The banking activities of Achmea Group reported in 1998, total assets and income of NLG 24.8 and NLG 1.9 billion, respectively. Achmea Group reported for 1998 balance sheet total assets and total income of NLG 69.9 billion and NLG 13.2 billion, respectively, as well as assets under management totaling NLG 103.9 billion.

Banco Comercial Portugus, S.A. is Portugal's leading publicly owned financial services group and is planning to expand its international activities through alliances with strategic partners which share a management philosophy for the development of innovative solutions for financial services distribution. BCP reported in 1998 consolidated total assets and net income of 32.0 billion Euro and 270 million Euro, respectively.

Achmea expects the participation by BCP to give an additional stimulus to the banking activities, the joint expertise to further improve the existing service levels and to aid development of new concepts. The investment represents an opportunity for BCP to enter low risk businesses, offering high growth potential in a developed market.