S&P's Governance Services Launches New GAMMA Score

/Standard & Poor's, Moscow, April 28, 08/ - Standard & Poor's Governance Services said today that its Corporate Governance Services group has been moved, effective Jan. 1, 2008, to Equity Research (ER) from Credit Market Services (CMS). Over eight years within CMS, the group's corporate governance scores (CGS) - which reflect Standard & Poor's assessment of a company's corporate governance practices and policies - have become well established, adding value for both debt and equity investors. However, because governance analysis methodology focuses on the equitable treatment of minority shareholders and the protection of their interests, it fits more naturally within ER. The analytical firewall policy applies to the Corporate Governance Services group in the same way as it does to any other part of ER, separating the group from CMS analysts. The Corporate Governance Services group is launching a new risk assessment product: the Governance, Accountability, Management Metrics, and Analysis (GAMMA) score. GAMMA reflects Standard & Poor's opinion of governance-related risk of losses in shareholder value or the failure to create value. Individual company governance practices and policies are measured against Standard & Poor's corporate governance criteria. These criteria are based on a wide range of international codes of governance practice, academic and investment research, and company practices. GAMMA methodology builds on our CGS and Governance, Management, and Accounting (GMA) filter criteria, reinforcing a risk-based dimension and adding analytical elements on enterprise risk management and strategic processes. GAMMA analysis is an interactive process comprising both a review of client company documents and procedures and face-to-face meetings with key management and shareholders. The objective of the scoring process is to review the client company's decision-making mechanisms and evaluate the relationship between a company's management, board of directors, and shareholders to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are taken into consideration on an equal basis. For its GAMMA service, Standard & Poor's uses a numeric scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best possible score. The Corporate Governance Services group will maintain two products - CGS and GAMMA - in parallel. GAMMA services will be offered in emerging markets only, starting with Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), India, and Brazil. It will be managed out of Moscow by Svetlana Borodina, Governance Services director, who reports both to Larry Neal, head of ER in New York, and Alexei Novikov, head of the Russia and CIS office. A detailed description of GAMMA methodology is available at www.standardandpoors.com. For further details, please contact Svetlana Borodina on (7) 495-783-4040 or e-mail svetlana_borodina@standardandpoors.com. 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 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 23 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 www.standardandpoors.com. [2008-04-29]