Thomson Extel Launches the Focus France Survey

Press Release

Thomson Extel launches the Focus France survey,

an overview of the French investment community

London and Paris, 12 June 2003: Thomson Extel will today announce the launch of the first Focus France, the first comparative survey to classify “sell-side” and “buy-side” financial analysis teams specialising in French securities. This survey, which is sponsored by Paris EUROPLACE and Euronext, will be the first evaluation by Thomson Extel of investment service providers in France.

The aim of this survey is to focus on the French management and financial analysis industries and to give a more significant and in-depth view of the French market. It will bring together opinions, from French and international fund managers investing in French securities, on the quality of the research services provided by the “sell-side” and “buy-side” analysts they use. The classifications will be based on 25 different categories.

Focus France will survey 250 management companies in France, Europe and North America. Voting began on Monday 14 April and will finish on Friday 27 June. Once all the votes are in, they will be verified before being incorporated into the results.

The winning teams for 2003 will be announced at the Paris EUROPLACE “Rencontres Financières Internationales” event on 8 and 9 July at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris. The prizes will be awarded on Tuesday 8 July at 6pm by key players from the Paris market.

Steve Kelly, Chief Executive of Extel, says:

"The Focus France survey is a major development for the Thomson Extel Survey, and will increase recognition of the French investment market. The results of our survey will give a very broad, and certainly very reliable, picture of “buy-side” and “sell-side” financial analysis in France."

The pan-European survey conducted by Thomson Extel is recognised as the definitive reference point for the European financial industry. Thomson Extel provides personalised classifications and results about stock market companies, fund managers and company investor relations managers.

About Thomson Financial

Thomson Financial, whose head office is in London, generated sales of $1.5 billion in 2002. Thomson Financial is the world leader in financial information products and integrated management solutions designed for the financial community. Thomson Financial offers the largest range of products and services on the market. Thomson Financial helps its partners around the world to make the right decisions, improve efficiency and exceed their objectives. Thomson Financial has a presence in 14 European countries and employs over 1,000 people.

Thomson Financial is a subsidiary of the Thomson Corporation ( whose shares are listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC).

About Paris EUROPLACE Paris EUROPLACE was created in 1993, as an apparatus for promoting the Paris financial market. The association brings together players from every branch of the financial industry: issuers, investors, brokers, market authorities, lawyers, accountants and professional associations. The work done by Paris EUROPLACE in stimulating and coordinating activities within the Paris financial market is now widely recognised at an international level.

Every year Paris EUROPLACE organises an event called “Rencontres Financières Internationales”, a forum for its members to present their service/product offer to international investors. There are three major annual events in Paris, New York and Tokyo, bringing together investors and key decision makers from the financial community (involving between 600 and 1,500 participants). Events are also held in other countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Since 1993, conferences have been organised in over 30 countries in total.

Web site:

About Euronext

Euronext is the leading cross-border exchange organisation, created from the merger of the cash and derivatives markets of Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris in September 2000. Euronext offers a wide range of services, including product listing, trading facilities for securities and derivatives, clearing, market data and IT support. In 2002 the Portuguese stock exchange, BVLP, and LIFFE, the international derivatives exchange, joined Euronext.

For cash products, Euronext has created a single market by regrouping all of its listed shares upon a single trading platform – the NSC system – in line with single market regulation. Clearing for these products is assured by means of a single system, called Clearing 21®. Euronext is the leading European exchange organisation, in terms of the value of transactions executed through its centralised order book.

Euronext.liffe is the derivatives arm of Euronext, and brings together the derivatives markets of Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris, as well as the LIFFE derivatives market. Euronext.liffe creates a single market for derivatives, by regrouping all its derivatives into a single trading system, LIFFE CONNECT™. Replacing several trading platforms with a single system will facilitate cross-border trading at a lower cost. Euronext.liffe is currently the world’s leading exchange organisation for derivatives trading, in terms of the value of its daily transactions.