Standard & Poor's Announces Changes in S&P Latin America 40 Index

NEW YORK (PROTEXT) - Standard & Poor's will make the followingchanges in the S&P Latin America 40 Index after the close oftrading Wednesday December 1, 1999: -- Telesp PN will be deleted from the S&P Latin America 40Index following its acquisition by Telesp Participacoes,effective immediately. -- Companhia Paranaense de Energia -- Copel will replaceTelesp PN. Copel is a provider of electric power in Brazil in thestate of Parana. It will be added to the Utilities sector. Itsexpected investable weight factor is 0.79. -- Upon completion of the merger Telesp Participacoes willchange its name to Telesp PN. Its investable weight factor willbe revised to 1.00. No earlier notice was given due to the finalnotice from the companies occurring after the close of tradingNovember 30, 1999. The S&P Latin America 40 covers Argentina, Brazil, Chile andMexico. The Indices provide geographic and economic diversityover 10 industry 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, 212-438-3534 Web site:http://www.spglobal.com

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