Concludes compliance review

ABB Ltd
07 July 2004



ABB concludes compliance review of upstream Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals business

Major condition for sale of upstream business fulfilled


Zurich, Switzerland, 7. July, 2004 - ABB, the leading power and automation
technology group, said today it had concluded a compliance review of its
upstream Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals division, fulfilling a major closing
condition for the sale of the upstream business to a consortium of private
equity investors made up of Candover Partners Ltd, 3i and JPMorgan Partners.



ABB and two of its subsidiaries -  ABB Vetco Gray Inc. and ABB Vetco Gray (UK)
Ltd. -resolved proceedings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and
the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) that arose from ABB's voluntary disclosure
of certain improper payments by former employees of the two subsidiaries.



ABB has undertaken an extensive compliance review of its upstream business
jointly with the consortium, and in full cooperation with the DoJ and the SEC.
As part of the agreement with the U.S. authorities, both ABB and the upstream
business will adopt enhanced compliance procedures intended to detect and
prevent future violation of laws related to improper payments.



ABB announced a preliminary sales agreement with the Candover group in late
October 2003, subject to regulatory approvals, as well as the satisfactory
completion and disposition of the compliance matters.  The compliance closing
condition has now been fulfilled, ABB said.



The sale concerns ABB's U.S.-based Vetco Gray unit and its ABB Offshore Systems
business headquartered in Norway. The upstream businesses, active in more than
30 countries, in 2003 had total revenues of US$ 1.7 billion.



Not included in the sale is ABB Lummus Global, which is mainly a downstream
business.



ABB Vetco Gray Inc. in the USA and ABB Vetco Gray Ltd. in the UK have pleaded
guilty to violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and paid an
aggregate fine totaling US$ 10.5 million. In addition, ABB Ltd agreed with the
SEC to resolve civil charges relating to the FCPA, including the payment of US$
5.9 million in allegedly unlawful profits.



ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable
utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering
environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100
countries and employs about 113,000 people.


                                                                              
                                                                                             
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ABB Corporate Communications, Zurich          Switzerland: Tel. [phone]
Thomas Schmidt , Wolfram Eberhardt            Sweden: Tel. [phone] 
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