VERBUNDgesellschaft: stock split scheduled for May 23, 2006

 To enhance the share’s attractiveness for small investors and to facilitate trading, the General Meeting, held on March 20, 2006, adopted a stock split in the ratio of 1:10.

The stock split was registered in the Commercial Register at the Commercial Court in Vienna on May 13, 2006. Due to the stock split at a ten-for-one ratio, the number of circulating no-par shares will rise from 30,820,000 to 308,200,000 (151,018,000 of which are no-par shares made out to the bearer, referred to as “Category A Bearer Shares” with the ISIN AT0000746409). On the day of transition, on May 23, 2006, each VERBUND shareholder will accordingly receive another nine VERBUND shares for each of his/her VERBUND shares. The stock split will become effective at Vienna Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange at trading start on May 23, 2006. Accordingly, from May 23, 2006 onward, the VERBUND share price will be a tenth of its closing price listed the day before the day of transition (around 41.5 €/share).

The shareholders will not be charged anything for the execution of the stock split. For holders whose shares are in a share depot, the transition will be executed automatically. Holders of physical shares will receive the additional no-par shares by submitting Coupon No. 17 at their house bank or at Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG, 1010 Vienna, Graben 21.

Additionally, within the context of a capital adjustment, VERBUNDgesellschaft has used free reserves amounting to EUR 223,977,675.00 to increase its share capital by EUR 84,222,325.00, which results in a share capital of EUR 308,200,000.00 pursuant to the provisions of the Capital Adjustment Act without an issue of new shares. The capital adjustment using the company’s own resources will cause the share of the share capital represented by each share to rise from € 7.27 to € 10.00. After the execution of the stock split a share will represent a share of the share capital amounting to € 1.00.