FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1 October 2008

Asteron to focus on core businesses of risk and investments

Asteron Life Ltd has today announced that it will no longer continue to offer home loan products to the market, as part of a renewed strategy to focus on its core areas of risk and investments. The company will continue to administer existing Asteron home loans.

``Asteron has always had very strong capability in the areas of risk and investments, and as part of our ongoing strategy to build on these areas of expertise we've made the decision to withdraw from the home loan market' says Antony Vriens, Asteron's General Manager.

``We are one of New Zealand's leading risk insurers and we've seen strong sustained growth over recent years in this part of our business, which is set to continue. We are closing a small niche business line in order to focus on our highly successful core businesses.’’

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