29th November 2004 - Bob Monks invests in Trucost

Today Trucost plc announces that Bob Monks, the veteran US corporate governance activist, has taken a substantial minority equity interest in the London-based environmental research company, through a family-controlled venture, RAM Equity Partners, LP. Monks has invested in Trucost because he believes that environmental performance analysis is a natural extension of corporate governance and "companies that pay attention to their impact on the environment will be more highly rated than those that neglect it."

Bob Monks will appoint two directors to the board of Trucost - State Senator Richard Bennett and John Higgins - who will be instrumental in the future development of the company. Trucost currently works with leading City institutions and companies, including Hermes Investment Management, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, Prudential and Legal & General, as well as the Environment Agency.

Monks says: "Trucost is really unique - it is the only environmental research firm in the world with a rigorous quantitative approach which institutions and businesses can base key decisions on. I have been monitoring its progress for over two years and in light of their growing sales and marketing success and the increasing demand from both institutions and companies, I have invested in the company.

"There is growing unease about systems that reward policy and process over actual performance, as these send the wrong message to companies and shareholders. Trucost research looks beyond corporate environmental policies and systems to the actual performance, expressing environmental damage in financial terms, which gives companies comprehensive and comparable data to help them comply with increasing reporting obligations worldwide and link environmental performance and shareholder value. I believe that this is second-generation environmental research.

"Investors are also increasingly aware that poor environmental stewardship can pose a significant threat to shareholder value and investment returns. Trucost provides the data they can use to differentiate themselves, to make better investment decisions and to help them win the increasing number of environmental investment mandates."

Simon Thomas, Chief Executive of Trucost, said: “We are delighted to welcome Bob Monks as a shareholder in Trucost. His wealth of experience in corporate governance and the global financial industry will enable Trucost to capitalise on the tremendous progress we have made with our quantitative approach over the last few years.”

Colin Melvin, Head of Corporate Governance at Hermes Investment Managers comments: "Hermes has been a long standing advocate of good corporate governance and believes that active engagement with companies creates long-term value. We have a legitimate interest in the management of environmental risk of the companies in which we invest and Trucost gives us the basis for effective engagement on these issues."

Trucost produces a range of products that enable investors to assess potential environmental risks in their portfolios and enable companies to manage and report on their environmental impacts and comply with current regulation. It was recently commissioned by the Environment Agency to publish the definitive study of environmental disclosure within the FTSE All Share [i]. The results showed that only 24% of FTSE All Share companies made quantitative environmental disclosures in their annual reports and accounts. This is proof that "few companies link their 'non-financials' with their 'financials'" [ii] when reporting.

-ENDS-

Bob Monks and Simon Thomas are available for interview – call Philippa Thomson on 020 7321 3731 or email info@trucost.com

About Bob Monks (www.ragm.com)

Robert A.G. Monks was founder of Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. (ISS) and served as its president from 1985-1990. He founded the LENS investment fund, which since 1992 has developed the "institutional activist" mode of investment. He helped sponsor, and was an investor in, Hermes-LENS Asset Management, Ltd; his interest in the venture was acquired by Hermes in 2000. He was responsible for the US law on shareholder responsibilities cited by the Myners Report and the UK Government. In the UK he is Deputy Chairman of Hermes Focus Asset Management.

About Trucost (www.trucost.com)

Trucost plc is an environmental research organisation that was founded in 2000 to help companies and investors understand the environmental impacts of business activities and to develop a platform that would facilitate more disclosure. Trucost provides data and analysis on company emissions and natural resource usage and presents these in financial as well as quantity terms. By presenting environmental performance in financial terms, Trucost research provides the basis for improved dialogue between the companies and investors or other stakeholders.

The external cost methodology employed by Trucost ranks a company's environmental impacts in order of significance, enabling directors and auditors to focus their efforts on those impacts that are likely to be material to their business. This also forms a transparent process with which a company and its auditors can assess whether it should make a public disclosure under the Operating and Financial Review regulations and the EU Modernisation Directive.

Trucost provides research to fund managers, analysts and other commentators on over 1,900 companies worldwide, including the entire FTSE All Share. Trucost has the support of an International Advisory Panel of eleven leading academics in the fields of economics and the environment who lend their considerable experience to the specialist research staff located in London.

[i] Environmental Disclosures in the Annual Reports & Accounts of companies in the FTSE All-Share, July 2004 http://www.trucost.com/FTSEdisclosure.html

[ii] Risk & Opportunity: Best Practice in Non-Financial Reporting, November 2004