RZB increases equity by 147 million Euro.

New equity in support of further expansion in Austria and Central andEastern Europe.

The subscription period for the first part of the equity increase ofRaiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZB) was closed yesterday.Overall,€ 147.3 million were subscribed by the ordinary shareholders. This corresponds to a 98.3 per cent subscription ratio for ordinary shareholders. Consequently, RZB’s subscribed capital now amounts to roughly € 2.7 billion, the core capital ratio of the financial group isat more than 8 per cent. Following the retention of the profits anticipated, this figure is supposed to further increase significantly by the end of this year.

“RZB has very comfortable capital reserves and will use the new capital funds to support its dynamic expansion in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. It boasts above average growth in its home markets whilst showing an excellent development of its profitability ratios“,says RZB’s Chairman of the Board of Management Walter Rothensteiner, who regards the equity increase an impressive mark of confidence of the Raiffeisen Banking Group to its central institution RZB.

The equity increase was authorised by an extraordinary general meetingof RZB on 27 October. The subscription ratio was 83:10. Subscriptionrights on ordinary shares were only granted to existing shareholders.The resolution included an equity increase of up to€ 335.6 million in two parts. The second part of up to € 167.8 million is supposed to be drawn by 2009.

RZB is a leading corporate and investment bank in Austria and alsoconsiders Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market, where itoperates a closely meshed network of 15 subsidiary banks with more than800 banking outlets, as well as two representative offices, in 16markets of the region. RZB’s subsidiary banks are amongst the three largest financial institutions in eight CEE markets.