Dividend Access Facility

ABB Ltd
19 March 2001


ABB Media Relations                    ABB Investor Relations
Thomas Schmidt                         Switzerland: Tel [phone]
Tel: [phone]                    Sweden: Tel [phone]
Fax: [phone]                    USA: Tel [phone]
[e-mail]             [e-mail]


ABB's Dividend Access Facility for 2001

Zurich, Switzerland, March 19, 2001 - More than 53,600 shareholders are
participating in ABB Ltd's Dividend Access Facility (DAF), corresponding to 90
percent of the VPC directly registered shareholders, representing 77 percent of
the VPC registered shares.

The DAF provides to shareholders tax resident in Sweden, holding VPC registered
ABB Ltd shares the possibility to receive equivalent dividends, from ABB
Participation AB being subject to taxation in Sweden without deduction of Swiss
withholding tax.

Shareholders participating in the DAF will temporarily be registered as
shareholders without rights to ABB Ltd dividends.  They will for each ABB Ltd
share receive one ABB Ltd share excluding dividend rights (ABB Ltd U) and one
dividend right separated from the share (SR).  After payment of dividends
ordinary ABB Ltd shares will be re-registered on the shareholders' VP-accounts. 
For shareholders participating in the DAF, the dividend payment date is planned
to be April 2, 2001.

The ABB Ltd U share will be traded, in parallel with the ABB Ltd share, on the
OM Stockholm Exchange's A-list during the period March 19, 2001 through March
26, 2001.  The ABB Ltd U-share's trading symbol will be ABB U and the ISIN code
is SE 0000625568.  Trading in dividend rights, SR, will not be possible.