WorldCom

Pursuant to Article 102.3a) of Legislative Decree 58/1998, Consob has ordered the precautionary suspension for 90 days of the offer for the exchange of bonds of WorldCom for newly issued shares and/or bonds of the same company (Resolution No. 14357 of 18 December 2003).

It has emerged that subscribers have been notified via the Clearstream central securities depository of the bond-exchange offer by WorldCom Inc and Innisfree M and A Inc. (the latter as Voting and Information Agent ), for EUR 6.75 WorldCom Inc. 01 - 2008 bonds, Common Code 012950748 ISIN Code XS0129507488, in exchange for newly issued WorldCom shares and/or WorldCom bonds (codes unavailable).

The information gathered indicated that there was a well-founded suspicion that the operations were being carried out in violation of the applicable law. In particular, they appeared to constitute exchange offers as defined in Article 1.1v) of Legislative Decree 58/1998.

The order is based on the fact that Consob has no record of having received either notice of such a public offer or a copy of the offer document to be published, as required by Article 102.1 of Legislative Decree 58/1998. (In Consob Informa n. 49/2003 - 22 December 2003)