The Dexia Group, of which Dexia Crédit Local is a part, is the merger result, in 1996, of two strong European banks specializing in municipal finance - Crédit Local de France and Crédit Communal de Belgique. The institution has grown substantially in the last five years and has broadened its range of financial products and services. Today, Dexia is the world leader in project and public finance. It is also one of the very few banks in the world whose exclusive core business is infrastructure finance.

With a stock market capitalization of 20.8 billion euros, Dexia ranked 26th in the Euronext 100 index as of December 2001. It is listed in Brussels, Paris, and Luxembourg. With 483 billion euros in total assets (June2005), the group ranked 11th among the Euroland's largest banks (Wall Street Journal).

The main entities in Dexia Group are among the best rated financial institutions in the world: Financial Security Assurance, the US based entity specialized in municipal bond and ABS insurance is rated AAA; while Dexia Crédit Local, the Paris based entity specialized in project and public finance; Dexia Bank, the Brussels-based entity which is the number one deposit bank in Belgium and controls 90% of the municipal finance market there; and Dexia-BIL, the Luxemburg-based asset management arm of the group; are rated AA to AA+ or equivalent by the three leading rating agencies.

With offices in more than 25 countries worldwide and a staff of 15,000+, the Dexia group has the ability to draw on specialized teams involved in public finance, municipal finance, project finance, asset finance, leasing, equity investment and export credit -- combining efforts to optimize financing structures and make them fit the specific objectives of our clients.

Astris Finance is majority owned by Dexia Crédit Local. The company was formed in 2000 to facilitate Dexia's entry into Latin American markets, by specializing in project management and financial advisory services to public and private sponsors of infrastructure projects. Our partnership with Dexia Crédit Local allows us to make use of Dexia's talented pool of public and project finance specialists to provide a complete package of services to our clients, starting at a strategic level identifying the best technical and financial options available, and ending with the actual transaction.