040401_financial statements

At its meeting today, the Board of Directors of Borsa Italiana Spa examined and approved the Borsa Italiana provisional financial statements for year 2003 which closed with net earnings of €23.4 million (€25.5 million in 2002) and a turnover of €123.8 million (€134.2 million in 2002).

The Board also examined and approved provisional consolidated financial statements for year 2003, which posted a turnover of €180.2 million (€148.9 million in 2002, where the income statement did not include the contribution of Monte Titoli Spa).

The company and consolidated provisional financial statements will be submitted to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders at the 1st calling on 29 April 2004 and at the 2nd calling on 13 May 2004 with a dividend proposal of €1.20 per share and a pay-out ratio of 83% (up 8.6% if compared to year 2002). The Group's operating result before goodwill amortisation reached €51.7 million (48.3 in 2002, up 7%). As a consequence of the impact of the amortisation of the goodwill due to the Monte Titoli acquisition and of the shrinking of operating margins of the parent company, partially offset by the contribution of subsidiaries, the net earnings were €19.6 million (€30.4 in 2002)

Following the integration of Monte Titoli, the breakdown of the Group's turnover of €180.2 million reveals a more balanced composition and is closer to that of the main European competitors than in the past.

Turnover from listings (including admission fees and the annual fees for listing of exchange-traded instruments, fixed income instruments, covered warrants and Etf's) accounted for 12.5% of the overall total (18.6% in 2002), turnover from transaction fees weighed in at 37.2% (47.3% in 2002) and turnover from sales of information services 17.2% (21.9% in 2002). Clearing revenues accounted for 10.2% (8.4% in 2002), the custody and settlement business for 19.3%, while revenues from other activities weighed in at 3.6% (3.8% in 2002).

Borsa Italiana Spa's total value of production of €123.8 million includes €66.9 million deriving from transaction fees, €30.9 million from sales of information services and products, €22.6 million from listing fees from financial instruments while the remaining €2.2 million comes from the provision of services to Borsa Italiana group companies and other income items.

The Group's management has succeeded, in part at least, in offsetting the unfavorable market trend by increasing the efficiency and the effectiveness of its activities, by extending the range of the value-added services it offers to market participants and by taking steps to ensure greater economies of scale.

The levels of productivity at the Borsa Italiana group are, in fact, still high: sales per employee are of Euro 489,000, a higher figure than at any of the leading European stock exchanges.

The average personnel for the year was 368.

The total capitalisation of the equity markets, at end December 2003, was €487 billion (+6.4% when compared with end 2002).

Borsa Italiana reached 6th place in Europe for capitalisation of domestic listed companies and was again fourth in Europe for stocks traded electronically.

The Italian market stands out in Europe for the high relative liquidity of its stocks, as shown by its first place for turnover velocity, the the indicator which compares trading turnover with capitalisation to show the annual rate of turnover of shares. In 2003 the Italian turnover velocity was in fact 143.7%, as against 109.7% at Deutsche Börse, 103.6% in Stockholm and 96.9% in Madrid.

With regard to year 2004, given that the uncertainty about the markets evolution due to macroeconomic factors and to the international geopolitical scenario, Group total revenues and economic results are expected to remain stable.

Milan, 1 April 2004