Seville, June 6, 2005.- Today, at 20:00 hours, the Foundation’s Hospital de los Venerables headquarters was the venue for the prize-giving ceremony for the Focus-Abengoa Prizes for 2004, organized by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation. The event was presided over by Miguel Florencio Lora, rector of the University of Seville, Agustín Madrid Parra, rector of the Pablo de Olavide University, Javier and Felipe Benjumea, and Anabel Leon, presidents and director general, respectively, of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation.

This social action, which commenced in 1982, is one of the Foundation’s objectives that include the promotion of studies, aiding research activities and recognition of the activities in these fields carried out throughout the year by candidates of different ages, employees of Abengoa and their family members, from at home and abroad. The prize-giving ceremony brings a close to a cycle of gratifying and vital work by the prizewinners, Abengoa’s employees and their family members, and for the Foundation itself in the development of the social action policy applied by Abengoa with the conviction that the company must work together with other different social groups to build and sustain, between everyone, a comfortable and common society.

Of note among the awards are those for Completion of Studies and the Research Grant, the prizes for the results obtained while participating in occupational perfection programs or courses, the prize for the Best Doctorate Thesis on a Seville Topic, and the Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize for 2004.

The Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize for 2004, considered to be one of the main prizes in Europe and America by the art world, with 24,000 euro going to the winner, was awarded to David Lopez Panea for a work the artist left untitled. Chus Garcia-Fraile Paris, for the work Ubicuos 24, and Maria Jose Ruiz Lopez, for ¿Por qué?, were the winners of the two 6,000 euro runner-up prizes.

The 3,000-euro prize for the Best Doctorate Thesis on a Seville Topic, read during the 2003-2004 academic year, has gone to Maria Angeles Barral Muñoz for her work entitled “Geo-archaeological Study of the City of Seville. Anthropization and Paleographic Reconstruction during the Recent Holocene (last 2,500 years)”. This prize also includes the publishing of the work by the Foundation.

In addition, the Foundation has assigned 155,180 euro for 1,561 Study Grants for different educational levels. These have been awarded to 922 families from Spain and Latin America; and the Completion of Studies Prize, the Research Grant, and other occupational perfecting prizes, for a total of 8,100 euro, have also been awarded.

The Completion of Studies prizes for Compulsory Secondary Education have gone to Mirari Uzuriaga Iraolagoitia and Isabel de los Reyes Tomas; at “Bachillerate” level, first prize has been awarded to Patricia Garduño Rodriguez, and second prize to Alexandra Rosa Tavares; at Superior Degree Training Cycles level, first prize has been awarded to Manuel Guillén Hinojosa and second prize to Antonio Ceballos Aguilar; at Diploma or University College level, first prize has gone to Alicia Valerio Sáinz and the Second Prize Ex Aequo Completion of Diploma or University College Studies went to Jesus Miguel Bermudez Salmerón and Maria Teresa Salivary Escudero; at Faculty and Superior Technical College level, the first prize was awarded to Manuel Alejandro Bellerín Lopez and second prize to Celma Souza Tomaz Medeiros.

The Research Grant has been awarded to Maria Laura Gonzalez Macía, for her work entitled “Electronic coupling between immobilized enzymes and electrodes: applications to biosensors and biofuel cells”, which will be carried out in the University of Seville’s Physics-Chemistry Department.

Finally, the prizes for results obtained while participating in occupational perfection programs or courses, organized or promoted by Abengoa or its subsidiaries, have been awarded to Ignacio Tomas Garcia Hernandez and Carlos Lebrato Martinez.

Abengoa’s commitment to Sustainable Development and its principles includes maintaining and increasing natural capital, social capital and the global economy capacity to generate richness in the quality of life and distribute it equally. This social action task is channeled through the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, established in 1982 with the main objective of contributing to the conservation, diffusion and development of the historic and cultural heritage of Seville and its dissemination throughout Latin America.

The Foundation's activities have been ever-increasing, while complying unwaveringly with its foundational objective of promoting culture in its different artistic and scientific manifestations. Proof thereof are the different educational initiatives undertaken again this year by the Foundation, such as the Focus-Abengoa Scholarship-Holder Program, the agreements reached with different Spanish and foreign universities, the Javier Benjumea Economics and Business Ethics Subject organized with Comillas Pontifical University, or the Javier Benjumea Prize with the University of Seville.