According to the MICEX CEO Alexander Potyomkin, the project's aim is to give market participants an effective analytical instrument to assess one of the main parameters of corporate management - transparency, and to increase Russian companies' awareness of the importance of securing information openness. This is expected to increase the attractiveness of Russian issuers in the eyes of investors.
The studies to be conducted by Standard & Poor's are based on the agency's own method, which consists in analyzing the quality of issuers' transparency from the point of view of international investors. Standard & Poor's analyzes 98 elements grouped under the following categories: property structure and relations with investors, financial and production information, the composition and the procedures of work of the board of directors and managers.
The value of each element is expressed as per cent of the so-called base level. 100%, or the base level, is the level of corporate transparency which is appropriate for investors to make investment decisions. On the basis of elements' values, the resulting integral estimated value is calculated, which determines the level of a company's transparency and, correspondingly, its ranking place.
The first results of Standard & Poor's studies are expected in September 2003.
