In 2005, the Group completed the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which have become the accounting standards for the Benetton Group consolidated financial statements. The 2005 half-year report, which we presented last September, was the first to be prepared in accordance with IFRS and included the “transition” document with the reconciliations of the 2004 financial statements between Italian GAAP and IFRS and which detailed the main impacts on those financials.

We have therefore continued efforts to train and update administrative personnel, both corporate and at subsidiaries’ level, as well as to perfect the accounting information system. Training also involved the staff of the fiscal and corporate areas, which have been affected by many important regulatory changes.

Beginning in 2006, the financial statements for the parent group, Benetton Group S.p.A., will be prepared in accordance with IFRS. Also in 2006, the organization will be engaged in meeting the requirements of Italian law nos. 62/2005, on market abuse, and 262/2005, on investment and savings.

Finally, for Benetton Group, as SEC registrant, 2006 will be the first year of application of the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This law requires publicly listed companies in the U.S. to have and document a detailed system of documentation and controls regarding corporate processes and financial statement information.