Dadd Becomes The First European Distributor Of Nikkei Indices

New York, 23 November 2004 - The Dividend and Derivatives Directory, (DaDD), the dividend forecasting and index management specialists, and Nikkei Europe today announced that DaDD has become the first index consolidator to agree a distribution partnership with Nikkei Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, DaDD's customers will be able to access official Nikkei index data, including Nikkei 225, 300 and 500 indices, through The Index Management Service, (TIMS)

DaDD already forecasts the individual dividend forecasts and ex-dividend dates up to 4 years ahead for over 1,300 Far Eastern stocks. TIMS, also tracks the index composition of over 80 Far Eastern indices, plus the global index "families". TIMS provides a high degree of added value, including validating data, and adjusting indices for changes which occur between close and market opening.

DaDD is the only provider of both global 4 year dividend forecasts and global index and ETF constituent information. Under the terms of the agreement, DaDD will become the first official distributor of Nikkei indices within Europe and also for the US.

DaDD, which was recently acquired by Mark-it Partners, is used by the majority of investment banks, equity derivatives, index and ETF traders, and, increasingly by hedge funds and asset managers. There is also a growing interest in DaDD's Far Eastern coverage.

John Price, Managing Director, DaDD, said: "This agreement will further enhance our index coverage. Once again our clients are the first to benefit from our new partnership with Nikkei. We look forward to working with Nikkei to provide the best possible service to our users."

Ben Conway-Hughes, Business Development Manager, Nikkei Europe, said: "DaDD's reputation as a provider of accurate, reliable and authoritative data make it an ideal choice of partner. Its strength in the Index market, within Europe and America will enable Nikkei data to reach a wider range of customers."

For further information, please contact:

DaDD

Notes to editors

About DaDD (The Dividend and Derivatives Directory)

DaDD is the only provider which forecasts the individual dividend amounts and ex-dividend dates up to 4 years ahead, for the top 4,000-5,000 global equities. DaDD dividends are used by the majority of investment banks, derivatives and index traders. DaDD data is also used by derivatives exchanges such as Euronext as a key input into options pricing and margining.

DaDD also provides The Index Management service (TIMS) which consolidates the latest constituents of virtually every commercially available index or ETF. Not only does TIMS provide access to a vast coverage but carries out rigorous cross checking and validation before the indices are released and reflects the latest composition at market opening, including overnight changes.

DADD has recently been acquired by Markit-Partners.

About Mark-it Partners

Founded early in 2001 with the support of contributing data partners ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Citigroup, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, TD Securities, and UBS, Mark-It Partners currently receives daily credit default swap (CDS) pricing on over 4,000 issues and receives pricing on over 27,000 cash securities. Partner banks and contributing data providers now total over 40 institutions globally. These institutions feed current and historical credit data into the Mark-it Partners system on a daily basis, facilitating better decision-making and credit risk management within banks' credit operations.

About Nikkei

Nikkei was founded in 1876, and is now the leading provider of Japanese business information. Nikkei publishes newspapers, websites and e-media services all dedicated to providing comprehensive distribution of economic and financial information. Nikkei has been calculating stock price indices for over half a century; the Nikkei 225 was first calculated on 7th September 1950. Since then Nikkei have developed a complete range of indices that have become some of the most watched indicators of the performance of Japanese securities.