[English Translation] April 22, 2005 Acquisition of Mingtai Fire & Marine Insurance CO., LTD. of Taiwan Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd. (President: Hiroyuki Uemura) is pleased to announce that it reached agreement today with First Financial Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “First Financial Holding”), a financial holding company, on Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance’s purchase of 100 percent of the outstanding stocks of Mingtai Fire & Marine Insurance CO., LTD. (hereinafter “Mingtai”), which is First Financial Holding’s non-life insurance subsidiary. The non-life insurer ranks second in the Taiwanese non-life insurance industry in terms of gross written premiums. The acquisition is priced at 8.4 billion Taiwan dollars (or about 28.5 billion yen). The acquisition further expands the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group’s Asian operations. The Group’s gross premium income in Asia (including that generated by Aviva Asia Pte Ltd), which was 72 billion yen as of the end of fiscal 2003, will increase by roughly 50 percent to 108 billion yen. This means the largest foreign non-life insurance company in Asia. 1. General Description of Mingtai   (1) Corporate history and characteristics   Ever since its establishment in 1961, Mingtai has sustained steady growth to become the No. 2 insurer in the Taiwanese non-life insurance market. The market (worth about 370 billion yen) is the fifth largest in Asia after those in Japan, Korea, China, and India. (2) Mingtai has a reputation for strong sales performance, especially with respect to car dealers. Automobile insurance accounts for 50 percent of the insurer’s premium income. The insurer is also active in forming sales alliances with banks, which serve as additional channels for promoting its sale of insurance products including fire insurance and personal accident insurance. (3) Mingtai’s portfolio consists mainly of local clients (such as small and medium enterprises, and individuals). The portfolio is highly complementary to that of our Taipei Branch, which consists primarily of Japanese-owned enterprises and large enterprises. (4) Taiwan’s non-life insurance market has been showing steady growth for the past several years, mainly in the automobile insurance segment. The market’s average combined ratio for the five-year period from 1999 to 2003 is 87.2 percent. The figure suggests that this market should generate stable earnings.   <Corporate Data> (1) Head office: No. 1, Jen Ai Road, Sec. 4, Taipei (2) President: Steven Li Chang (3) Established: September 1961 (4) Capital: 2 billion Taiwan dollars (about 6.8 billion yen) (5) Number of employees: About 1,350 (6) Sales network: 17 branches and 48 sub-branches in Taiwan, and 6 representative offices overseas (7) Premium income: 10,564 million Taiwan dollars (about 35.9 billion yen as of the end of December 2003) (8) Market share: 9.9 percent (ranked second in the industry) 2. Significance and Purpose of Acquisition   (1) Our acquisition in September 2004 of the entire Asian non-life insurance operations of Aviva plc. of the UK transformed Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance into the largest non-life insurance company in the ASEAN community and one of the leading foreign-affiliated non-life insurance companies in the entire Asian region. (2) Our company has been actively expanding the scope of its operations in Asia. The acquisition represents an extension of this Asia strategy. Consequently, our company will have an even firmer footing in Asia, and our collective operations throughout the entire Asian region make us the largest non-life insurer in Asia. The basic framework and structure of the Taiwanese non-life insurance market are similar to those of the Japanese non-life insurance market. We believe that in the process of coping with non-life insurance deregulation, which is currently in progress in Taiwan, applying the know-how we have gained in the Japanese market will open the door to numerous outstanding business opportunities. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance understands that no redundancies or amendments to work rules would result from the completion of this transaction. (3) Our company has set seven major business strategy targets as part of “Challenge 10,” which represents our Long-Term Vision 2010. One of the 7 targets is to be ranked "No. 1 in gross premium and net profit overseas." We consider this acquisition a giant step toward our achievement of this objective. <Reference: Our Major Achievements and Initiatives in Asia> February 2002 Establishment of BPI/MS Insurance Corporation (overseas affiliate in the Philippines) September 2002 Establishment of the Korea Branch (Seoul) April 2003 Establishment of Cholamandalam-MS General Insurance Company Limited (joint venture in India) October 2003 “Asia Insurance Industry Award for Personality of the Year” presented to Chairman Inokuchi February 2004 Capital participation in The Ayudhya Insurance Public Company Limited of Thailand March 2004 Capital participation in Bangkok Life Assurance Limited of Thailand (our first entry into the life insurance business in Asia) March 2004 Presentation of the “Excellent Insurance Company” award to the Thailand Branch from the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand April 2004 Capital participation in Asia Insurance (Cambodia) Limited and completion of our ASEAN sales network June 2004 Technical cooperation to Central Insurance Co., Ltd. (Taiwan) and introduction of index-linked weather insurance into Taiwan September 2004 Acquisition of the entire Asian non-life insurance operations of Aviva plc. of the UK September 2004 Establishment of Cholamandalam MS Risk Services Limited (risk management joint venture in India) October 2004 Comprehensive alliance with China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. February 2005 Commencement of a tropical rain forest recovery project in Indonesia March 2005 Presentation of the “Excellent Insurance Company” award to the Thailand Branch (second year in a row)