Fortis holding and Fortis Bank - notice

• Press Release
• Source: FORTIS
• On Wednesday November 19, 2008, 12:40 pm EST

BRUSSEL, BELGIUM--(MARKET WIRE)--Nov 19, 2008 --
In accordance with the new transparency rules, Fortis holding gives notice that the number of Fortis holding shares held by Fortis Bank exceeds the official threshold of 3%.

This notice is given because Fortis Bank ceased to be part of the Fortis group on 10 October 2008. The 125,313,283 shares linked to CASHES that are included in the holding of Fortis Bank will not be entitled to voting and dividend rights until the CASHES are exchanged for the underlying instruments.

 
A) Voting rights


               Number of
                voting
                rights Number of voting rights    %  voting rights
  Holder of            Attached to  Unattached Attached to Unattached
 voting rights         securities       to     securities      to
                                    securities             securities
Fortis Bank            125,329,125      0         4.98%      0.00%
                TOTAL  125,329,125      0         4.98%      0.00%

More information is available on www.fortis.com/shareholders/transparency_requirements.asp.

Fortis holding (Fortis SA/NV and Fortis N.V.) will, after the conclusion of the deal with BNP Paribas, include only (1) international insurance activities, (2) a 66% stake in a structured credit portfolio entity and (3) financial assets and liabilities of various financing vehicles.

The international insurance activities (Fortis Insurance International) are located in UK, France, Hong Kong, Luxembourg (Non-Life), Germany, Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine, and in joint ventures in Luxembourg (Life), Portugal, China, Malaysia, India and Thailand.

Fortis holding is therefore no longer involved in any banking activities, and once the deal with BNP Paribas is concluded, will concern only international insurance activities.

 
Press Contacts:
Brussels:           +32 (0)2 565 35 84 Utrecht: +31 (0)30 226 32 19
Investor Relations:
Brussels:           +32 (0)2 565 53 78 Utrecht: +31 (0)30 226 65 66

This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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