Purchase of Own Securities

ABB Ltd
14 May 2001

ABB completes share buy-back
Twenty-four million shares correspond to about two percent of total share
capital

Zurich, Switzerland, May 14, 2001 - ABB announced today that it has finished the
share buy-back program initiated on March 29, 2001.  During the program, and
after taking into consideration the ABB 4-to-1 share split that took place on
May 7, 2001, ABB repurchased 24 million ABB Ltd shares, with a nominal value of
CHF 2.50 each, for cancellation.

ABB initiated the share buy-back after approval at its annual general meeting on
March 20, 2001.

The 24 million shares correspond to about two percent of the company's total
shares capital.  The buy-back program is part of ABB's commitment to create more
value for shareholders.  The cancellation of the shares and the reduction of the
share capital will take place following approval of shareholders at the annual
general meeting in 2002.

The share buy-back took place exclusively on the SWX Swiss Exchange.  It used a
second line of trading established specially for this purpose, in which ABB was
the only purchaser.

ABB (www.abb.com) serves manufacturing, process and consumer industries,
utilities, the oil and gas markets, with 160,000 employees in more than 100
countries.