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Thomson Extel Pan-European Survey 2006


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London, 06/21/2006, Thomson Financial, an operating unit of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC, TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community, today announced the results of the 33rd Thomson Extel Pan-European Survey, the most extensive assessment of the sell-side in Europe ever undertaken.

Voting ran from March 27th to end of May 2006 and the response to the Survey, primarily conducted online, reflects the contribution of over 5,000 professionals from 1,222 buy-side firms, across 56 countries worldwide. From the sell-side, over 1,400 analysts from 147 brokerage firms/research houses participated, and 480 of Europe’s largest quoted companies also took part. The key winners are:

* Leading Pan-European Brokerage Firm for Equity and Equity-Linked Research:
1.UBS

* Leading Pan-European Fund Management Firm:

1.Fidelity International

* Leading Pan-European Individual Equity Analyst:

1.Antoine Colonna – Merrill Lynch

* Leading Pan-European Sector Team (across all categories)

1.Global Strategy Team – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein

* Leading Pan-European Equity Sector Team:

1.Utilities Team – Citigroup Global Markets

Steve Kelly, Head of the Thomson Extel Survey, said: “Increased overall levels of participation once again give the Survey an unrivalled breadth and depth, meaning that both the trends, and the winners, identified have genuine validity.

“Today we celebrate excellence, but in conducting the Survey, we are equally committed to offering cutting-edge market insight. With this in mind, we intend to apply our methodology to the global investment community, with an inaugural Asia Survey this autumn, and plan to cover both the USA and Japan in 2007.”

In the 2006 Survey, we have combined with specialist partners for four distinct elements of the Survey. These are:

* UK Small Caps - in collaboration with Financial Village, where alongside detailed rankings we have a complete report and analysis on the UK Small Caps market
* Independent Research - along with Global Investor Magazine, to reflect the growing use of independent research, and range of services provided by independent ‘boutiques’
* Stock-picking Performance – in collaboration with StarMine Estimates and Recommendations rankings across all equity sectors
* Operational and Settlement Capabilities – in collaboration with Z/Yen rankings to assess Operational and Settlement Capabilities of brokerage firms

Nearly 250 financial practitioners across Europe attended this year’s breakfast event at Moor House in the City of London today, to hear market insight from the Thomson Extel survey and see ten of the main awards presented. The event was hosted by the Rt Hon William Hague MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary.

In addition to the ten key awards presented today, there are another 85 awards covering the full range of equity sectors, economics and strategy, equity derivatives and emerging markets categories. Outstanding achievements, and sector-by-sector rankings of Europe’s quoted companies for quality of Investor Relations, will be acknowledged at a separate ceremony in September, to be held in conjunction with Real IR magazine.

The Thomson Extel Survey is the only one of its kind for which all data, votes received and methodology applied are independently checked and verified. This data is very important to those who are ranked, and the logic for independent verification is absolutely compelling. Deloitte has undertaken this task for every Survey since 2000 and is scheduled to do so again in 2007.

The Key 2006 Results (2005 in brackets, ten awarded today) are:

* Leading Pan-European Brokerage Firm for Equity and Equity-linked Research:

1. UBS (1)

2. Citigroup Global Markets (2)

3. Merrill Lynch International (3)

* Leading Pan-European Fund Management Firm:

1. Fidelity International (1)

2. Capital International (2)

3. Schroder Investment Management (3)

* Leading Pan-European Individual Equity Analyst:

1. Antoine Colonna – Merrill Lynch (13)

2. Per Lindberg – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (3)

3. Andrew Wood – Sanford Bernstein (1)

* Leading Pan-European Sector Team (across all sectors)

1. Global Strategy Team – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (1)

2. Global Strategy Team – Societe Generale (24)

3. Utilities Team – Citigroup Global Markets (2)

* Leading Pan-European Equity Sector Team:

1. Utilities Team – Citigroup Global Markets (2)

2. Aerospace & Defence Team – UBS (-)

3. Banking Team – Citigroup Global Markets (21)

* Leading Pan-European Specialist Sales Person:

1. Gerard Zaffran – Merrill Lynch (19)

2. Erland Sternby – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (10)

3. Alex Evans – Deutsche Bank (7)

* Leading Pan-European Fund Management Individual:

1. Neil Woodford – Invesco Asset Management (-)

2. Mario Frontini – Fidelity International (-)

3. Gadi Slade – Capital International (5)

* Leading Pan-European Brokerage Firm for Equity Trading & Execution:

1. UBS (1)

2. Goldman Sachs (4)

3. Merrill Lynch (5)

* Leading Brokerage Firms for Continental European Small Caps Research

1. Cheuvreux (2)

2. UBS (1)

3. Citigroup (3)

* Leading Brokerage Firm for UK Small Caps:

1. ABN Amro

2. Numis Securities

3. Investec Securities

* Leading Independent Research Provider:

1. Arete Research

2. Blue Oak Capital

3. Redburn Partners

* StarMine Overall Pan-European Stock Picker:

1. Lars Marius Furu – Fondsfinans (-)

2. Henning Lund – Kaupthing Bank (-)

3. Rune André Juliussen – Carnegie Securities (-)

* Z/Yen Leading Pan-European Brokerage Firm for Operations:

1. Credit Suisse Securities (1)

2. Merrill Lynch International (2)

3. ABN Amro (-)

To view the headline results visit www.extelsurvey.com (after midday today)

About Thomson Extel:

Thomson Extel (www.extelsurvey.com) is part of Thomson Financial which is a US$1.9 billion provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to more than 20 million business and professional customers in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With revenues of US$8.5 billion, The Thomson Corporation lists its common shares on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

About StarMine:

StarMine (www.StarMine.com) provides independent, objective ratings of securities analysts around the globe by measuring their stock-picking performance and the accuracy of their earnings forecasts. StarMine helps professional investors extract more value from outside research in less time by identifying the analysts that add the most value, forecasting potential earnings surprises and shortfalls, and alerting investors to the most important changes in analyst forecasts and opinions. Thomson Financial First Call is a strategic partner of StarMine and the source of estimate and recommendation data. A privately held company founded in 1998, StarMine is based in San Francisco with offices in New York, London, Sydney, Boston, Chicago and Denver.



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