HOUSTON, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE:STC) announced its intention to offer, subject to market and other conditions, $60 million aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due 2014 (the "Notes") in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The Notes will be guaranteed by Stewart's wholly-owned subsidiary, Stewart Title Company , and certain of its wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries. The Notes will be senior unsecured obligations of Stewart and will rank senior in right of payment with all existing and future indebtedness of Stewart that is expressly subordinated in right of payment to the Notes. Stewart intends to use the net proceeds from the offering and existing cash on hand to pay down an aggregate amount of $60.5 million of outstanding unsecured callable bank debt, which results in an extension of our debt maturities. The Notes, the subsidiary guarantees and the underlying shares of common stock that may be delivered upon conversion of the Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws, and, unless so registered, may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy any of these securities, nor shall it constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE-STC) is a customer-driven, technology-enabled, strategically competitive real estate information, title insurance and transaction management company. Stewart provides title insurance and related information services required for settlement by the real estate and mortgage industries throughout the United States and in international markets. Stewart also provides post-closing lender services, automated county clerk land records, property ownership mapping, geographic information systems, property information reports, flood certificates, document preparation, background checks and expertise in tax-deferred exchanges. More information can be found at http://www.stewart.com/. Forward-looking statements. Certain statements in this news release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate to future, not past, events and often address our expected future business and financial performance. These statements often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "will" or other similar words. Forward-looking statements by their nature are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the severity and duration of current financial and economic conditions, continued weakness or further adverse changes in the level of real estate activity, our ability to respond to and implement technology changes, including the completion of the implementation of our enterprise systems, including the implementation of our enterprise systems the impact of unanticipated title losses on the need to further strengthen our policy loss reserves, any effect of title losses on our cash flows and financial condition, the impact of our increased diligence and inspections in our agency operations, the impact of changes in governmental and insurance regulations, our dependence on our operating subsidiaries as a source of cash flow, the continued realization of expected expense savings resulting from our expense reduction steps taken in 2008, our ability to access the equity and debt financing markets, our ability to grow our international operations, and our ability to respond to the actions of our competitors. These risks and uncertainties, as well as others, are discussed in more detail in our documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date hereof, except as may be required by applicable law. DATASOURCE: Stewart Information Services Corporation CONTACT: Ted C. Jones, Director-Investor Relations of Stewart Information Services Corporation, +1-713-625-8014, Web Site: http://www.stewart.com/

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