Standard & Poor's Announces Changes in S&P Euro and Euro Plus Indices

NEW YORK (PROTEXT) - Standard & Poor's will make the followingchanges in the S&P Euro and S&P Euro Plus Indices after the closeof trading Friday, October 29, 1999: -- Promodes S.A. will be deleted from both the S&P Euro andthe S&P Euro Plus Indices, following its acquisition by CarrefourS.A. -- Alitalia S.p.A. will replaced Promodes S.A. Alitalia S.p.A.is an Italian airline operating domestic, international andintercontinental air transport services. Alitalia's investableweight factor is expected to be .47. It will be added to the S&PIndustrials Sector. -- Elf Aquitaine will be deleted from both the S&P Euro andthe S&P Euro Plus Indices, following its acquisition by TotalFina. -- Union Electrica Fenosa S.A. will replace Elf Aquitaine.Union Electrica Fenosa S.A. generates and distributes electricityin the Madrid, Galicia, Castilla-Leon and Castilla-La Manchaareas of Spain. Its investable weight factor is expected to be.80. It will be added to the S&P Utilities Sector. The S&P Euro Index covers the Eurobloc countries; the S&P EuroPlus Index covers Continental Europe by including the Euromarkets plus Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The S&PEuro Plus Index contains 200 constituents, and the S&P EuroIndex, a subset of Euro Plus, contains 160 constituents. TheIndices provide geographic and economic diversity over 10industry sectors. The indices are calculated real-time byReuters. Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc., provides financial, economic and investment information andanalytical services to the global financial community. S&Pcalculates and maintains the S&P Global Index, which includes theS&P Euro and Euro Plus for Continental Europe, the S&P/TSE 60 forCanada, the S&P 500 for the U.S., the S&P/TOPIX for Japan, theS&P Asia/Pacific 100, the S&P United Kingdom 150 and the S&PLatin America 40. S&P also publishes the S&P MidCap 400, S&PSmallCap 600, S&P SuperComposite 1500 and S&P REIT Composite forthe U.S. and the S&P/TSE Canadian MidCap and S&P/TSE CanadianSmallCap Indices. Over $750 billion is indexed to S&P indices. Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leadinginformation services provider meeting worldwide needs ineducation, business, finance, the professions and government. Thecorporation employs 16,500 people located in more than 400offices in 32 countries. Sales in 1998 were $3.7 billion. Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index donot in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of thecompany. ots Original Text Service: Standard & Poor's Internet:http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Carol Levine, CommunicationsManager, Index Services of Standard & Poor's, 212-438-3534 Website: http://www.spglobal.com

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