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			egg:| and Prudential Banking In little more than a year, egg:| has become established as a household name and one of the UK's most recognised e-commerce brands. Our strategy of offering some of the most competitive and customer friendly products in the market, delivered using the latest in internet design and technology, has resulted in an egg:| customer base of 940,000 and deposit funds of £7.6 billion at the year end. This remarkable growth has exceeded our initial business targets and egg:| is regarded as the UK's leading e-commerce financial services website. By late February the combined Prudential Banking and egg:| mortgage book stood at £1.7 billion, of which £452 million is egg:| mortgages, while egg:| personal loans have reached £227 million. Through egg:| we have been able to reach a new type of customer, one who is computer literate and financially discerning and who wants to benefit from the combination of the best financial products the market has to offer, and who uses internet services which fit in with their lifestyle. The growth in the number of customers using our website is spectacular. In July 1999 we had 184,000 visitors to the egg:| website and in January 2000 that figure rose to 1.1 million. In January, 62 per cent of all egg:|'s deposit transactions took place over the internet and 86 per cent of mortgage applications were via the internet. Our hi-tech communication centres in Dudley and Derby continue to take some 60,000 calls and 11,000 e-mail enquiries from customers each week. Our innovative working practices and specially designed employee training programmes all lead to a unique egg:| culture and customer experience. Building on the success of its core savings and loan products, egg:| launched an internet credit card in September 1999 which now has over 250,000 account holders. Credit card customers benefit from market-leading rates and a guarantee against internet fraud. We also offer an on-line shopping zone which offers some of the best value retail consumer products available. We have previously announced our intention to launch a new on-line unit trust supermarket which will give egg:| customers access to investment funds offered by leading investment houses, as well as an on-line share-dealing service. We are capitalising on the strengths of on-line services to ensure that egg:| remains at the forefront of technological development and will continue to do so as our range of innovative products and services continues to expand. During 1999 our investment in egg:| totalled £150 million and we expect a similar level of investment during 2000. We anticipate that with its current plans and activities, egg:| will be breaking even in the latter part of 2001 as the benefits of the customer base and cross-buying materialise. The intent to pursue plans for an IPO, subject to continuing progress in the business and favourable market conditions, represents the best option for the accelerated development of egg:| and for the maximisation of long-term shareholder value of Prudential. It will create greater financial flexibility for egg:|, will facilitate growth by giving it the ability to undertake acquisitions through the use of internet paper, and it will help to recruit, incentivise and retain high calibre staff.