NEW YORK, July 31, 2002 – Dow Jones Indexes announced today the launch of value and growth indexes tracking the stocks of six European countries.
The new country-based growth and value indexes were created to measure the performance of the two investment styles in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and will complement the existing Dow Jones STOXX European regional growth and value indexes.
Michael A. Petronella, managing director of Dow Jones Indexes, said, “The new value and growth indexes for these European countries further enhance the breadth of the Dow Jones/STOXX, Ltd. benchmark index series. We believe strongly that investment managers who use indexes as benchmarks as well as for investing purposes deserve as much choice and granularity as possible when measuring a market.”
The Dow Jones Value and Growth indexes for these six European countries are a subset of the existing regional Dow Jones STOXX Value and Growth indexes that were launched on July 18, 2001. To be included in the European country style indexes, a company must be a member of the Dow Jones STOXX Total Market Index.
When classifying a stock as value or growth, Dow Jones Indexes uses an innovative six-factor model that includes: projected price-to-earnings ratio (P/E); projected earnings growth; trailing earnings growth; trailing price-to-earnings ratio (P/E); price-to-book ratio (P/B); and dividend yield. Companies that do not exhibit strong growth or value characteristics do not qualify for the index and are considered neutral stocks.
Growth stocks typically demonstrate higher revenue, sales, profit and cash flow and are more likely to reinvest profits than pay dividends. Value stocks, on the other hand, tend to have relatively low price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios and are more likely to pay dividends.
The Dow Jones/STOXX, Ltd. family of indexes already includes growth and value indexes for the U.S., Canada and Europe. Global value and growth indexes are under consideration.
The Dow Jones European Country Style Indexes will be distributed on a real-time basis through major data vendors. Full component lists and ticker symbols will be available on the Dow Jones Indexes Web site www.djindexes.com starting on July 31, 2002.
As of June 30, 2002, the top three growth and value stocks in each country were:
| GROWTH | VALUE |
| France | |
| TotalFinaElf S.A. | BNP Paribas S.A. |
| Aventis S.A. | AXA S.A. |
| Carrefour S.A. | Societe Generale |
| Germany | |
| Siemens AG | Deutsche Bank AG |
| Allianz AG Holding | DaimlerChrysler AG NA |
| Muenchener Rueckversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG | E.ON AG |
| Italy | |
| Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. | ENI S.p.A. |
| Telecom Italia Mobile S.p.A. | Telecom Italia S.p.A. |
| Autostrade S.p.A. | Enel S.p.A. |
| Netherlands | |
| Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. | ING Groep N.V. |
| Unilever N.V. CVA | ABN AMRO Holding N.V. |
| Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. | Fortis N.V. |
| Sweden | |
| L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. B | Nordea AB |
| Hennes & Mauritz AB B | Svenska Handelsbanken A |
| Securitas AB B | Electrolux AB B |
| Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. | Fortis N.V. |
| United Kingdom | |
| GlaxoSmithKline PLC | BP PLC |
| Vodafone Group PLC | HSBC Holdings PLC (UK Reg) |
| Astrazeneca PLC | Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC |