S&P's identifies 8 Indian global challengers

S&P Global Challengers Class of 2007 Spans 37 Countries; 10 Sectors; includes India's ACC, Hotel Leela Venture, Indian Hotels, Jain Irrigation, Lakshmi Machine Works, Marico, Siemens India, Titan Industries

LONDON, May 10, 2007 "� Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, published today a listing of 300 mid-size companies that are expected to emerge as challengers to the world's leading blue-chip companies. Eight Indian firms have been included in the annual S&P Global Challengers List?, which identifies mid-size publicly traded companies that exhibit the strongest internal and external growth characteristics.

The 2007 class of S&P Global Challengers has representation across 37 countries and all 10 GICS sectors. The country contributing the most members is Japan, followed by the United States and then the United Kingdom. Regionally, the Americas represent 22.67% of the list's composition, followed by Asia/Pacific (41.67%), Europe (33.33%) and Middle East/Africa (2.33%). Looking at sector representation within the 2007 list, Industrials lead the charge, followed by Financials and Consumer Discretionary.

"In the Darwinian sense, mid-caps are truly positioned in an evolutionary "sweet spot," having survived beyond their start-up phases and offering stability as well as rapid growth opportunities in the future," says Srikant Dash, Index Strategist at Standard & Poor's. "Mid-cap firms can be thought of as having overcome the "growing pains" of small firms and thus a lot less risky than small-cap start-ups. The class of 2007 offers the best potential pool of companies that could become tomorrow's leaders."

The S&P Global Challengers List? is Standard & Poor's response to needs of consultants and marketers analyzing global growth trends or seeking client engagement opportunities, strategy formulators assessing future partners or competitors and product providers structuring investment vehicles that offer exposure to fast growing mid-size companies. It is based upon a robust methodology that applies consistent standards to multiple countries. The attributes used to identify the companies are three-year share price appreciation, sales growth, earnings growth and employee growth.

A paper outlining the structure, methodology, and constituents of the S&P Global Challengers List? can be found by visiting www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

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 $1.45 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 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 8,500 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.