Bear, Stearns International Limited Hires Susanne Seibel to Cover European Food & Consumer Goods

"Susanne's extensive experience in this new area of equitycoverage for Bear Stearns in Europe further bolsters our alreadystrong consumer franchise in North America," Mr. Hirst said. "Susannehas proven she can deftly identify long-term industry trends and turnthem into investment ideas and clients have recognised her for it."Ms. Seibel has been top-ranked in her sector in the InstitutionalInvestor Survey of European Research every year from 2000 to 2004. Shewas also the top-ranked analyst in the Extel survey in 2003.

Prior to joining BSIL, Ms. Seibel was at UBS for four years whereshe was Global Consumer Sector strategist. Before that, she was Headof the European Consumer Products team at Merrill Lynch for six years.Earlier in her career, Ms. Seibel was also a credit analyst ofconsumer staples.

BSIL is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bear Stearns CompaniesInc. (NYSE: BSC) BSIL currently employs approximately 1,000 staff inLondon who serve corporations, institutions, partnerships andgovernmental entities in the United Kingdom, Europe and the MiddleEast. BSIL's capabilities include investment banking, institutionalequities and fixed income sales, trading and research, derivativeproducts, financial futures, foreign exchange, private client servicesand global clearing.