DeMarche Announces 
100 Most-Improved U.S. Companies for Shareholder Value for 2006

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Investment consultant DeMarche Associates, Inc., has recognized 100 U.S. companies for performance that significantly improved shareholder value. These 100 companies are recognized as the most-improved companies in select industries. Members of this group have demonstrated the following: operating performance within the top 3 percent of all major U.S. Corporations, success in managing both growth and risk factors, and consistently improving corporate operating performance for the three-year period ending December 31, 2006. For a complete list of winners, please see the link on the right.

This annual award is based on our proprietary measure of migration, a metric used to evaluate how well companies are attaining growth objectives, while managing risk. Based on our research, migration identifies an underlying, fundamental trend associated with growth and risk for a specified time horizon. This important indicator identifies companies that are trending toward high-quality, defensive characteristics; that is, those companies that are increasing growth while decreasing risk. Just as investors can use the DeMarche migration score as a signal of when to investigate further into a company's performance, companies can use the rating as a measure of overall corporate operating performance.

Performance of the 100 Most Improved in 2006 was 14.7 vs. 15.9 percent for the DeMarche 3000. For the 3 years ending 12/31/2006, trading the 100 Most Improved as a portfolio, it was up 23.2 percent vs. 9.1 percent.

	Average Return over last 1 YR	Average Return over last 3 YRS
Migrating 100	14.7%	23.2%
DeMarche 3,000	15.9%	9.1%

Complete List of Winners