Caracas, July 29, 2002 — Lara Marambio & Asociados, member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Venezuela, announces the signing of an agreement to bring the following Andersen professionals to their national practice: Salvador Porta Ferré, Francisco Cachafeiro, Humberto Romero-Muci, Francisco Acosta, Adriana Blanco, Douglas Chemaly, Daiwal Dood-Persaud, Héctor Gutiérrez, José Laría, Carmen Rincón, Luis Fraga, Mercedes Rodríguez and Ariel Solano. With the arrival of these outstanding professionals, Deloitte & Touche will become the leading professional services firm in the country, and the third largest in the Latin America region following Mexico and Brazil.

This transaction will create a new organization with more than 650 professionals in locations across the country including Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo, Puerto Ordaz, Puerto La Cruz and Porlamar. The practice in Venezuela forms part of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's worldwide professional services network consisting of more than 100,000 people in 140 countries.

"This is an excellent opportunity to broaden our operative structure in Venezuela, offering our clients the outstanding talents of our professional staff  while at the same time giving our people excellent opportunities for growth and development," expressed Hernán Marambio, Emilio López and Salvador Porta, executive directors of the practice.

With this development in Venezuela, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu expands its global network where similar successful alliances have already taken place in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Sweden, Holland, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Colombia, among others.