S&P and BusinessWeek Announce Winners of Second Annual U.S. Excellence in Fund Management Awards 

    NEW YORK, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, a leading provider
of independent investment research, ratings and indices, and BusinessWeek, the
world's best selling business magazine, announced today the winners of their
second annual Excellence in Fund Management Awards(1).  Of the 15,878 funds
tracked in Standard & Poor's database, nine mutual fund managers or management
teams were identified by Standard & Poor's fund analysts and BusinessWeek as
being best in class for demonstrating exceptional levels of leadership,
embracing transparency in their management, and consistently outperforming
their peers over the past five years.  Last year's award recipients produced
an average return of 47.18% from March 14th, 2003 to March 5th, 2004 versus
41.26% for the S&P 500.  Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek are units of The
McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), a leading global information services
provider.
    In developing this unique awards program, which premiered in 2003,
Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek sought to provide investors with a longer-
term perspective on mutual funds by incorporating important qualitative
factors such as the fund management team's experience, tendency to adhere to
stated style objectives, and its ability to keep expenses low into their
selection methodology while not solely focusing on the fund's past years'
performance.  In addition, each of this year's nine award winners was
recognized for:

     * Receiving a BusinessWeek category ranking of "A"
     * Performing at or above the average of its peers in both strong and
       challenging market conditions
     * Staying within the fund's stated investment style over the past five
       years
     * Historically producing consistent, strong returns to investors
     * Producing a return justifying the current level of its expenses
     * Staying free of any major changes at the fund sponsor (i.e., mergers,
       acquisition, change in fund management team)
     * Controlling risk relative to the fund's benchmark
     * Maintaining a stable level of assets under management over the past
       several years

    The winners of the second annual Excellence in Fund Management Awards are:

     Category           Fund Manager           Fund Name           Ticker

     Specialty Bond     John Calamos           Calamos Growth      CVTRX
                        & Nick Calamos         & Income Fund

     Large-cap Blend    Daniel Boone III       Calvert Social      CSIEX
                                               Investment Fund:
                                               Equity/A

     Large-cap Blend    William Fries          Thornburg Value     TVAFX
                                               Fund/A

     Large-cap Blend    Bill Miller &          Legg Mason Value    LMVTX
                        Nancy Dennin           Trust Fund

     Large-cap Growth   Team Managed           Growth Fund of      AGTHX
                                               America

     Fixed Income       Philip Barach,         TCW Galileo         TGLMX
     Mortgage Asset     Jeffrey Gundlach, &    Total Return
     Backed             Frederick Horton       Bond Fund

     Large-cap          Team Managed           Dodge & Cox         DODBX
     Balanced                                  Balanced Fund

     General            Daniel Fuss            Managers Bond       MGFIX
     Intermediate                              Fund
     Bond

     Foreign Equity     Rudolph-Riad Younes    Julius Baer         BJBIX
                                               International
                                               Equity Fund

    The full list of award winner profiles can be found in the March 22nd
issue of BusinessWeek (on newsstands Monday, March 15th) or by visiting
http://www.businessweek.com.  Standard & Poor's selection methodology, as well as
other awards information, can be found by accessing
http://www.managerawards.standardandpoors.com on Friday March 12th.
    Standard & Poor's analytic services are performed as entirely separate
activities in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of each
analytic process.  All non-public information received during any analytic
process, including credit ratings, is held in confidence.  Standard & Poor's
analysts do not disclose non-public information outside of their specific
analytic areas.

    About Standard & Poor's
    As a recognized authority in institutional-quality financial research,
Standard & Poor's has 65 fund analysts located in nine offices around the
world offering in-depth mutual fund reports on over 15,000 U.S. domestic
mutual funds.  In addition, the company's custom-designed client solutions
provide access to performance data on nearly 80,000 investment funds in the
U.S., European, Asian, and Offshore universe.
    Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), is
the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk
evaluation, investment research, data and valuations.  With 5000 employees
located in 20 countries, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's
financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years
in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more
confident about their investment and financial decisions.  For more
information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com.

    About BusinessWeek
    BusinessWeek is the world's largest business magazine, with a worldwide
circulation of nearly 1.2 million and more than 5.6 million readers worldwide
each week.  It is published weekly by The McGraw-Hill Companies in New York,
and is distributed in more than 100 countries.  More information about
BusinessWeek is available at http://www.businessweek.com.

    (1) The Excellence in Fund Management Awards program is to be used for
informational purposes only and should not be considered to be a
recommendation or a solicitation to buy or sell any product, fund or security.