On Jan. 15, 2003, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on the City of Milan--Italy's second-largest municipality--to negative from stable, reflecting its revised outlook on the Republic of Italy (AA/Negative/A-1+), also announced Jan. 15. At the same time, the long-term issuer credit rating on Milan was affirmed at 'AA'. For further details on the sovereign outlook revision and on its implications for Milan, please refer to Standard&Poor's media releases "Italy Outlook Revised to Negative Due to Weak Fiscal Accounts; Teleconf. Jan. 17 at 2 pm GMT" and "Outlook Revision to Neg on Italy Fuels Outlook Change on Certain Italian Local Governments"; both were published Jan. 15, 2003, and are available on RatingsDirect, Standard&Poor's Web-based
