Interfax-CEA launches a new product in Interfax-100 series:

The Interfax Center for Economic Analysis (Interfax-CEA), part of Interfax Information Services Group, has launched a new analytical product of the Interfax 100 series, "Interfax 100. Management of Pension Savings," a quarterly ranking bulletin.M

The first issue of "Interfax 100. Management of Pension Savings" contains the ranking as of the end of 2005.

"The new ranking offers comprehensive assessments of the performance of the managers of pension savings, and will provide people with more detailed information on the results of the management of their pension savings. One or two figures cannot reflect the investment strategy of a company, investment risks or other qualitative characteristics that an investor needs to know. Our product, unique in the Russian market, is expected to help future pensioners make sense of information on managing companies and will offer guidelines to institutional investors, primarily non-state pension funds, in choosing companies to manage pension savings that have been entrusted to them," said Mikhail Matovnikov, general director of Interfax-CEA.

The ranking assesses the performance of 56 companies managing 63 pension savings portfolios, including state managing company Vnesheconombank (VEB), from the moment this line of business was launched in the first quarter of 2004.

The key method for ranking is the division of portfolios into three categories - portfolios of high, medium, and low investment risk. The degree of stability of the structure of a portfolio for the period under analysis is also taken into account.

The three-category classification is based on an analysis of investment structures and on working out the average structure of assets for the period of management.

VEB is treated as a separate category since the large amount of assets under its management and its limited investment declaration as a result of its being a state company mean that comparison with other portfolios would be improper.

Another separate category are portfolios with an investment strategy that is unidentifiable on the basis of accounts due to a high proportion of uninvested assets.

The key criterion for categorizing portfolios within the groups is the Sharpe Ratio, a measure of the risk-adjusted return of an investment. In addition, ratios have been derived for each portfolio to evaluate the efficiency of portfolio management versus the standard group indicator and the degree of sensitivity of the profitability of the portfolio versus changes in the standard indicator.

The ranking also cites more than 100 extra criteria for pension savings portfolios and managing companies: profitability of management for various periods; key criteria of management efficiency; investment structures as of a certain date and average investment structures for the period of management (based on quarterly accounts); structures of investment revenues and portfolio management expenditures; the dynamics of assets under the management of a company, including transfers of assets from the Russian Pension Fund and transfers of assets to other companies; a comparative analysis of the de facto and target profitability of portfolios; and characteristics of the market positions of managing companies.

The ranking is based on information disclosed by managing companies under the Standards for the Disclosure of Information on the Investment of Pension Savings approved by Order No. 107n of August 22, 2005, of the Russian Finance Ministry.

*** Interfax-CEA releases regular statistical and analytical products on various financial markets of Russia and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and provides information on the performance of Russian institutional investors.

The products include daily forecasts and reports on various financial markets, rankings of Russian banks and insurance companies under the generic title of Interfax 100, and rankings of banks and insurance companies in CIS countries under the generic heading of Interfax 1000.

*** Interfax Information Services Group provides information products and communications means for political and business decisions.

Set up in 1989, the Group is a network of national, regional and specialist news agencies in Russia, other CIS countries, China, and Central Europe.

Interfax (www.interfax.com, www.interfax.ru) comprises companies and units providing news, analytical services, market and fundamental information, and developing software.

Moody‘s Investors Service is Interfax‘s partner in Moody‘s Interfax Rating Agency, which holds the leadership in the Russian rating market.

Experian, a leading global credit history company, is Interfax‘s partner in the Interfax-Experian credit bureau, which provides information for potential lenders on how accurately loan seekers have been repaying their former loans.

Interfax Business Service, a company that is part of the Group, is a strategic partner of Thomson Financial in Russia and the CIS in the investor relations market.