Yesterday, on 4^th  October 1999, the limited period began for swapping 419,782 Bundesländer-Versicherung participation certificates, each with a nominal value of ATS 100. All holders of Bundesländer participation certificates listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange thus have the possibility of becoming shareholders of UNIQA Versicherungen AG.  The swap period ends on 22^nd October.

The participation certificates will be swapped one to one at no charge and with no further payment for ordinary shares with the same nominal value of ATS 100.

Merger
The UNIQA Versicherungen AG arises from the merger of Bundesländer-Versicherungs AG and BARC Versicherungs-Holding AG.As the holding company it will be the only company of the entire UNIQA Group Austria to be listed on the stock exchange. The group will have the same extent as the current BARC Group, which includes besides the BUNDESLÄNDER and the Austria Group also the Raiffeisen-Versicherung, the Salzburger Landes-Versicherung and other insurance companies in nine European countries.

A clear capital structure
To provide a clear capital structure UNIQA ordinary shares with a nominal value of ATS 100 are to become the single relevant type of share for the Company. To this end there will be a swap of participation certificates and a switch, already decided up, from Bundesländer preference shares to ordinary shares, and the previous registered shares of the majority shareholder will be transformed into bearer shares.

Provisionally on 8^th November 1999 the UNIQA ordinary shares will be traded for the first time in place of the Bundesländer preference shares.