S&P to Launch Industry's First Emerging Market Style Indices; Vietnam Added to the S&P Frontier Composite Index

New York, NY, USA 12 September 2006/PRNewswire/ — Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that it is set to launch new style indices based upon its emerging market indices. Growth and Value indices will be calculated for the S&P/IFCI indices effective November 1, 2006. Separately, Standard & Poor's announced that Vietnam would be added to the S&P Frontier Composite Index effective December 1, 2006.

Standard & Poor's is pioneering the Growth and Value indices for the S&P/IFCI indices effective November 1, 2006 with the history going back to November 2003. As reporting guidelines in emerging markets have become more stringent and transparency has improved, investors are increasingly looking to add value to their emerging market portfolios with strategies, which can generate different risk-adjusted returns. Growth and value scores for individual stocks, as well stock weights and index levels, will be available upon request. A multiple variable style methodology will also be used. A paper outlining the structure and methodology of the new style indices will be posted on http://www.globalindices.standardandpoors.com/ on November 1, 2006.

Recognizing the interest that Vietnam is increasingly generating amongst global investors, Standard & Poor's announced today that it would add Vietnam to its S&P Frontier Composite Index effective December 1, 2006. "Vietnam's economy has consistently grown in the range of 7-8% over the last several years," says Alka Banerjee, Vice President of Index Services at Standard & Poor's. "In addition, its market capitalization, which is currently over $2.5 billion, has grown over 40 times since 2000. With it set to become the latest entrant into the World Trade Organization, Vietnam is well on its way to becoming fully integrated into the global economic landscape."

For more information, please visit: http://www.globalindices.standardandpoors.com/.

About Standard & Poor's Index Services

Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with $1.26 trillion invested and $4.45 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline indices. For more information, please visit http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP) , is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With approximately 7,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 21 countries, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com/.