June 26, 2002 - Frankfurt am Main.
In 2001 Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank, Mainz, (ImmobilienBank) again increased its volume of new business. Its lending commitments rose by 4 % to EUR 4.2 billion.

With its international banking commitments up by approx. 16 % to EUR 2.5 billion, ImmobilienBank has assumed a leading position in international markets.

„Not only could we reproduce the high financial results we attained the previous year in the USA and Great Britain,“ declared Jürgen Stinner, Chairman of the Executive Board at ImmobilienBank, „but we also achieved large growth rates in France, Belgium, Spain and The Netherlands.“ An office was opened in Madrid at the beginning of 2002. Foreign operations are being specifically expanded.

As a result of the risk and profit-based credit policy that was pursued, domestic business fell to EUR 1.7 billion (previous year: EUR 1.9 billion). EUR 1.3 billion of this reduction was experienced in the national investors sector alone (previous year: EUR 1.7 billion). In the house finance sector, the rate of new business doubled to EUR 402 million; this can be especially attributed to the positive business developments made by ImmoBank direkt.

Customers' accounts climbed by more than a third to EUR 12.5 billion (previous year: EUR 9.2 billion). The balance sheet total grew by EUR 12.8 billion to EUR 16.2 billion. As a result of granting additional profit participation rights, capital resources rose by 15 % to EUR 833 million (previous year: EUR 720 million).

Economic developments within Germany adversely affected not only the balance sheet but also ImmobilienBank's profitability.

After risk provisioning and before income tax, the operating result for 2001 amounted to EUR 14.9 million (previous year: EUR 24.1 million). Owing to special tax reasons, the annual net profit dropped to EUR 1.7 million.

The Group's operating result totals EUR 10.2 million (previous year: EUR 10.4 million) and the annual net profit after taxes is EUR 0.5 million (previous year: EUR 2.7 million).

In 2001 ImmobilienBank consistently pursued its new strategy to become more investment oriented. In October 2001, the new National Real Estate Investment Banking business unit was established. Its core activities include real estate consulting, structured finance and consortium management. The objective behind this business unit is to acquire, structure and syndicate larger real estate deals by means of collaboration with subsidiaries, parent companies and partners.

ImmobilienBank published its second market report entitled „The Potential and Risks Involved in Real Estate Investment Banking“ to coincide with its annual accounts press conference. „The complexity of real estate investment banking calls for completely different methods of potential and risk management,“ explained Mr. Stinner. In order to expand its business opportunities, ImmobilienBank securitised a very diverse global portfolio of commercial property loans that have an overall volume of around EUR 1.0 billion. The REAL VALUE ONE transaction is a „partially funded“ Commercial Mortgage Backed Security Transaction (CMBS) with a good rating. At present, plans are in the pipeline to securitise housing loans as Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS).

The business trend continues to be stable in 2002. Preparations are being made to introduce mortgage bond rating. ImmobilienBank has already hired Standard & Poor’s to rate mortgages and public mortgage bonds.