Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, published a listing of 300 mid-size companies that are expected to emerge as challengers to the world's leading companies.

Designated the S&P Global Challengers List(TM), the list is an annual publication identifying mid-size publicly traded companies that show the highest growth characteristics along dimensions encompassing intrinsic and extrinsic growth.

The 2007 class of S&P Global Challengers has representation across 37 countries and all 10 GICS sectors. The country contributing the most members is Japan, followed by the United States and then the United Kingdom. Regionally, the Americas represent 22.67% of the list's
composition, followed by Asia/Pacific (41.67%), Europe (33.33%) and Middle East/Africa (2.33%). Looking at sector representation within the 2007 list, Industrials lead the charge, followed by Financials and Consumer Discretionary.

"The Class of 2007 is fairly diversified, suggesting that emerging global challengers come from a broad range of sectors and countries," says Srikant Dash, Index Strategist at Standard & Poor's.

The S&P Global Challengers List(TM) is Standard & Poor's response to needs of consultants and marketers analyzing global growth trends or seeking client engagement opportunities, strategy formulators assessing future partners or competitors and product providers structuring investment vehicles that offer exposure to fast growing mid-size companies. It is based upon a robust methodology that applies consistent standards to multiple countries. The attributes used to identify the companies are three-year share price appreciation, sales growth, earnings growth and employee growth.