DECLINING TREND IN EARNINGS DISCLOSURE

New York, NY May 13, 2002 -Investors are demanding more corporate disclosure, but fewer CEOs are reporting on their companies' year-end earnings in shareholder letters. This finding in a new study on disclosure trends in shareholder letters was just released by andBEYOND Communications, an investor-relations advisory firm. In fact, the number of companies that omitted earnings discussions has more than doubled since 1999 and 1998.

L.J. Rittenhouse, president of andBEYOND Communications, said, "The quality of earnings disclosure has deteriorated. More CEOs fail to clearly distinguish between pro forma and GAAP-based earnings." The survey showed that:

• Only 27 percent of the letters reported a number for net income that was easily matched in the accompanying audited income statement.
• Twenty-nine percent of the letters reported pro forma earnings numbers that were different from the net income figure in the audited statements.

In her new book, Do Business With People You Can Tru$t, Rittenhouse identifies CEOs who make the grade or who fail to provide candid and clear reporting in their letters. She analyzes the inconsistent and increasingly imprecise quality of earnings reports in Enron's shareholder letters from 1996-2000 to show how investors could have been alerted to potential problems at the company.

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