MING: Agreement with Norwegian State Finance Fund approved bysupervisory board

The Supervisory Board of SpareBank 1 SMN has on Tuesday 22 September
2009 approved an agreement with the Norwegian State Finance Fund
whereby the Fund will provide an infusion of NOK 1,250,000,000
through subscription to hybrid capital issued by the bank.
 
The capital infusion will strengthen SpareBank 1 SMN capital adequacy
ratio by 2.12 percentage points to 10.70 per cent. The bank is
assigned to risk grade 2 based on the bank's current rating (A1).
 
The interest rate margin on the hybrid capital is 5.5 per cent above
the six-month treasury bill rate (currently about 1.6 per cent). The
margin will rise by 1 percentage point after four years and a further
1 percentage point after five years. Hybrid capital is perpetual, but
the bank can redeem the loan subject to permission from
Kredittilsynet (Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway).
 
Reference is also made to the current guidelines for approving the
redemption of hybrid capital from the Norwegian State Finance Fund,
see www.finansfondet.no, and Kredittilsynet's guidelines for
approving the redemption of hybrid capital from the Norwegian State
Finance Fund at www.kredittilsynet.no
 
The capital infusion is conditional on approval by the Norwegian
State Finance Fund.
 
Trondheim, 23 September 2009
 
Contact person at SpareBank 1 SMN
CEO Finn Haugan, +47 900 41 002
 
This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is 
solely responsible for the content of this announcement.