BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 09-NOV-00 -- Citibank in Romania and Lockheed Martin Corporation of the U.S. today announced final agreement on a $55 million export contract to the Ministry of Environment for Romania. The ultimate beneficiary of the SIMIN project is the National Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Water Management but the project will benefit other sectors of the country, too, such as agriculture, transportation, defense and internal affairs. The National Integrated Meteorological System, or SIMIN, will replace aging weather forecasting equipment and create an integrated meteorological system of modern environmental and meteorological sensors with ground-based radars and weather satellites. SIMIN will enhance Romania's real-time capability to detect, monitor and forecast weather phenomena in Romania, and help in the exchange of weather data regionally, throughout Europe, and globally.

Both Lockheed Martin and Citibank provided the financing for the project with credit enhancement from the U.S. EX-IM Bank, while the internal guarantor is the Ministry of Finance. This is the largest U.S. EX-IM Bank financing for Romania in 1999-2000, which coincided with Romania's return on the international capital markets in September 2000 with a EUR 150 million three-year bond. A new mandate was issued to Schroeder Salomon Smith Barney and ING to raise five-year funds for the country, and the closing is expected in November.

Citibank is a member of Citigroup, the world's largest financial institution with assets in excess of $700 billion.

As the prime contractor for the project, Lockheed Martin of Syracuse, New York, will design, procure, install and integrate the components of the SIMIN system, which include five WSR-98D Doppler S-band weather surveillance radars, a wind profiler, surface observation stations, hydrological buoy(s) sensors and the forecaster and graphical processing system that makes SIMIN operational.

This system will give Romania modern weather forecasting technology and make it a focal point for regional weather forecasting, said Michael Smith, president of the Lockheed Martin facilities in Syracuse. It also will directly contribute to an improved quality of life for the Romanian people.

The Lockheed Martin unit in Syracuse, N.Y., employs 2,100 people and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services.