PRESS RELEASES

The February 2001 issue of Institutional Investor Magazine awards Wood and Co.'s Czech research team for its distinctive and insightful coverage. In the magazine's All-Europe Research awards feature, analysts Jan Slaby and Jiri Stanik, with Wood and Co. less than a year, are named the Czech Republic's third team.

"Clients praise [the Wood and Co.] team for taking contrarian views," Institutional Investor writes. "In November 2000 Wood downgraded utility company CEZ to sell - a recommendation that contradicted some 15 buy calls from other brokerage firms. But the team, which cited problems with the export of electricity into European Union countries and with the whole privatization process, was proved right. By December, just a month after the recommendation, CEZ shares had taken a 15 percent nosedive."