NY Companies

Hermitage Capital Management, Moscow
William Browder, Managing Director

Hermitage Capital Management is one of the largest investment management firms that specializes in the Russian equity market. The firm makes significant minority investments in large public Russian companies and uses its influence to make positive changes in the corporate governance of those companies. The firm is an affiliate of HSBC and has offices in Guernsey and Moscow. The main product of the firm is the Hermitage Fund.

www.hermitagefund.com

The Nixon Center
Dimitri Simes President

The Nixon Center is a non-partisan public policy institution, committed to the analysis of policy challenges to the United States through a prism of American national interest. Created by President Nixon shortly before his death, the Center is a programmatically independent division of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. Nixon Center staff conduct research and organize conferences, seminars, and lectures in six main program areas: U.S.-Russian Relations, National Security Studies, Chinese Studies, Regional Strategy, Immigration, and International Economics. Nixon Center publications, including the Center's recently released report on Russia policy to the new administration, are available on the Center's website at www.nixoncenter.org.

Energomashexport – Power Machines
Evgeny Yakovlev, General Director

Power Machines Concern (PMC) is Russia's largest power machinery producer and is often referred to as Russia's Siemens. In our view it should be interesting to investor community as it plans to offer 10-15% of the stock in the domestic IPO market some time in 2003.

The company is currently fully controlled by Interros which has won its long takeover battle with Energomashcorporatsia for control over LMZ, Electrosila and ZTL. Now, Interros is in the process of consolidating and turning around these three plants. Under Interros management, Power Machines managed to achieve a strong revenue growth of over 40% in 2001 and to secure an order book of over $2 bn, guaranteeing a 20-25% CAGR over the next 5 years. The recent flow of lucrative orders has been possible due to the better coordination of marketing efforts through the Holding company (Energomsahexport-Power Machines), which has increased PMC’s success rate in tenders from 30% to 60%.

PMC's production base is relatively modern in the Russian context and its products are competitive in international markets. It enjoys a competitive advantage over its domestic rivals in that it can handle turnkey projects. Internationally, its products are 20-25% cheaper and its traditional relationship with what are now fast-growing export markets will secure order growth in both the construction and modernisation of power-generating facilities. Moreover, if the power sector reform is successful, then we expect a substantial increase in demand from Power Machines' domestic market.

www.energomachexport.com

The Russian Federation State Duma

Profile to follow shortly.

Standard & Poor's
Helena Hessel, Director,

Over 140 years of independent insight for the global financial community.

Who we are: A merger in 1941 of Standard Statistics and Poor's Publishing Company traces its roots to 1860 when Henry Varnum Poor published his History of Railroads and Canals of the United States. Mr. Poor was a leader in establishing the financial information industry on the principle of “the investor's right to know.” Today, more than 140 years later, Standard & Poor's is the pre-eminent global provider of independent highly valued investment data, valuation, analysis and opinions and is still delivering on that original mission.

What we bring to the marketplace: As the financial markets have grown more complex over the last century, the financial community has increasingly sought out Standard & Poor's rigorous, independent analysis, and information on stocks, bonds, mutual funds and many other complex investment vehicles. The critical thinking, opinions, news and data offered by Standard & Poor's have become an integral part of the global financial infrastructure.

Our unique power: creating independent benchmarks

$1.5 trillion in investors' assets indexed to Standard & Poor's indices, including the premier U.S. portfolio index, the S&P 500;
One of the world's top providers of stock quotes and related financial content to Internet sites globally;
A global leader in providing objective information, insight and analysis to customers in the equities, fixed income, foreign exchange and mutual funds markets;
Investors globally look to Standard & Poor's credit ratings for objective, insightful analysis on the ability and willingness of governments, corporations and others to repay their debts on time and in full with trillions of debt rated globally;
The world's leading credit rating service, operating through a global network of 18 offices and seven affiliates.

The heart of Standard & Poor's investment skill is its analysts, over 1,250

They include some of the world's foremost economists;
Experienced analytical teams thoughtfully set criteria, and ensure consistent, predictable methodology for all commentary and analysis.

Our history: creating standards, carving out firsts Standard & Poor's plays a truly unique role in the capital markets. It has been aiding the creation of market transparency since its inception in 1860, when Henry Varnum Poor began supplying financial information at a time when Europe sought to know more about its holdings in the newly developing infrastructure in America. The cardinal tenet of Poor's investment reference publications was “the investor's right to know.”

In 1906, the Standard Statistics Bureau was formed to provide previously unavailable financial information on U.S. companies;
In 1916, Standard Statistics began to assign debt ratings to corporate bonds, with sovereign debt ratings following shortly thereafter;
In 1940, municipal bond ratings were introduced;
In 1941, Poor's Publishing and Standard Statistics merged to form the Standard & Poor's Corporation;
In 1966, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. acquired Standard & Poor's.

Standard & Poor's has a long history of creating standards for the financial industry. For example, we were the first to rate:

Securitized financings;
Bond insured transactions;
Letters of credit;
The financial strength of non-U.S. insurance companies;
Bank holding companies
Financial guaranty companies

On the equity side, we led the way with:

Index tracking systems;
Exchange Traded Funds;
A database standardizing information on publicly-traded companies, enabling financial professionals to readily make comparisons across categories;
A series of web-based services that support analytical, planning, and investment professionals globally.

Today, Standard & Poor's employs more than 5,000 people working in 18 countries.

As always, a beacon for the financial community Standard & Poor’s, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), provides independent financial information, analytical services, and credit ratings to the world’s financial markets. With 5,000 employees located in 19 countries, Standard & Poor’s is an integral part of the global financial infrastructure. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, Business Week and McGraw-Hill Education. The corporation has more than 300 offices in 33 countries. Sales in 2001 were $4.6 billion. Additional information is available at www.mcgraw-hill.com

Svyazinvest
Alexander Lopatin, CFO and Deputy General Director

Telecommunication Investment Joint Stock Company Svyazinvest was set up in 1995. It is one of the largest telecoms holding companies in the world. Currently, it incorporates 7 mega-regional telecoms operators, 6 joint stock companies that are not involved in mega-regional mergers, JSC Giprosvyaz and JSC Rostelecom, the domestic long-distance and international carrier.

Svyazinvest share capital is 19.5 billion rubles. The Ministry of Property Relations of the Russian Federation (50 per cent + 1 share), the Russian Federal Property Fund (25 per cent – 2 shares) and the Cyprus consortium Mustcom (25 per cent + 1 share) are its major shareholders.

Svyazinvest network covers nearly the whole of Russia and its installed capacity is over 31.5 million lines (as of July 1, 2002). Digitalization rate – 38 per cent.
Regional operators hold licences for the provision of local, domestic long-distance and international telephone services, data transmission, etc. They also provide ISDN services, wireless subscriber access and GSM, NMT450, AMPS and DAMPS mobile services. Svyazinvest employs 367 thousand people.
According to preliminary estimate the holding company’s revenue reached $3.66 billion in 2002.