State Street Global Advisors Advances Commitment to Alpha Generation for Global Investors; New Hires Underscore SSgA's Commitment to Absolute Return Strategies

SSgA has managed absolute return strategies since the early 1990s.Today the firm makes available to clients a wide variety of absolutereturn strategies, including currency, long/short, market neutral,fixed income arbitrage and equity hedge/directional strategies,totaling approximately $4 billion in assets (as of March 31, 2006).With this effort, SSgA is bringing greater focus to the management ofits alternative strategies.

The current staff of investment professionals is led by ChrisWoods, and was recently expanded to include new high profile hires ofJonathan Chanis, Henri Fouda, and Todor Georgiev formerly of CaxtonAssociates, Mellon Capital Management and KBC Alternative AssetManagement, respectively. The three bring with them experiencemanaging emerging market, commodity, global macro and capitalstructure arbitrage strategies. Woods and his team report to SeanFlannery, CIO North America and to Jane Tisdale, senior managingdirector of Absolute Return Strategies. The team is also supported bySSgA's Advanced Research Center, a group of more than twenty fiveanalysts with advanced degrees in mathematics and applied financedisciplines.

Additionally, a license has been entered into for dynamicallocation software developed by AlphaSimplex Group, LLC, a Cambridge,Mass.-based quantitative investment management company led by AndrewW. Lo, Ph.D., managing member and chief scientific officer. Dr. Lo isthe director of the MIT Laboratory of Financial Engineering, and theHarris & Harris Group Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

"The combination of our risk management expertise andAlphaSimplex's tools for dynamic asset allocation distinguishes us inthis competitive industry," said Woods. "Designed specifically toaddress the heterogeneous risk exposures implicit in differentabsolute return strategies, the software transcends traditional assetallocation analytics which don't typically take into account some ofthe unique risk factors faced by these strategies."

"This initiative signals a high level of commitment to alternativeinvestment strategies and allows us greater flexibility to buildstandard and customized alpha investment solutions for our clients,"said Flannery. "It also provides flexibility to offer absolute returnstrategies to a wide range of clients on a worldwide basis. Lastly, byestablishing a focused business, we can more easily adapt to changingmarket conditions in our single-minded pursuit of alpha."

SSgA's increased commitment to absolute return strategies comes ata time of rising institutional demand and we are uniquely positionedto capture a share of this growing marketplace. We intend to provideinstitutions with access to alpha through investment with a firm thathas a long fiduciary heritage. SSgA's well-tested operationalenvironment, and deep knowledge of risk management, differentiates thefirm along with its global reach and experience managing across theentire spectrum of asset classes. This breadth allows the operationalflexibility to access multiple strategies in the pursuit of alpha,while at the same time aiming to offer clients a high level oftransparency, accountability and fiduciary comfort. SSgA willaccomplish this flexibility through the establishment of a limitedpurpose trust company, State Street Global Advisors Capital ManagementTrust Company, LLC.

About State Street Global Advisors

State Street Global Advisors, the investment management group ofState Street Corporation, delivers investment strategies andintegrated solutions to clients worldwide across every asset class,investment approach and style. With $1.5 trillion in investmentprograms and portfolios at June 30, 2006, State Street Global Advisorshas investment centers in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Milan, Montreal,Munich, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Zurich, and offices in 25cities worldwide. For more information, visit State Street GlobalAdvisors at www.ssga.com.

About SSgA Capital Management

State Street Global Advisors Capital Management Trust Company,LLC, is a New Hampshire-chartered, limited-purpose, nondepositorytrust company, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of State StreetCorporation, a financial holding company supervised by the FederalReserve Board.

About State Street Corporation

State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) is the world's leadingspecialist in providing institutional investors with investmentservicing, investment management and investment research and tradingservices. With $10.9 trillion in assets under custody and $1.5trillion in assets under management at June 30, 2006, State Streetoperates in 26 countries and more than 100 geographic marketsworldwide. For more information, visit State Street's web site atwww.statestreet.com.