Press
Contacts:
Warren Sherman
President
Kamakura Corporation
1-201-600-7542
wsherman@kamakuraco.com
www.kamakuraco.com
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Press
Contacts: |
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HONOLULU, January 6, 2004: Kamakura Corporation reported today that its monthly index of troubled companies in the United States showed strong improvement in December. Kamakura reported that the troubled company index fell to 12.0% of the public company universe in November, down 1.6% from the previous month. Kamakura classifies any company with a default probability of more than one percent as troubled. This is the largest monthly drop in the troubled company index since it reached its peak of 30% in March, 2003.
"The improvement in credit quality that began in November continued each week throughout December," commented Dr. Donald R. van Deventer, Kamakura Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Except for the most troubled companies, all components of the troubled company index showed significant monthly improvement. The number of companies with default probabilities between 1% and 5% was 7.0% of the public company universe, down from 7.8% in November. Companies with default probabilities between 5 and 10% were down to 1.6% of the universe from 2.0% in November. Companies with default probabilities between 10% and 20% also improved 0.4% to 1.2% of the universe. The riskiest firms in the universe, those with default probabilities over 20%, increased slightly to 2.3% of the universe, up 0.1%."
Kamakura is offering free trials of its KRIS default probability service to qualified institutions. For more information on Kamakura's free trial offer please visit the Kamakura Corporation web site. Additional information can also be found in Advanced Financial Risk Management (John Wiley & Sons, 2004) by Kamakura's van Deventer, Kenji Imai, and Mark Mesler available on Amazon. Advanced Financial Risk Management was recently named "best finance book of 2004" on riskbook.com.
About Kamakura Corporation
Kamakura Corporation is a leading provider of risk management information, processing and software. Kamakura has been a provider of daily default probabilities for listed companies since November, 2002. Kamakura launched its private firm modeling product in January 2004. Kamakura is also the first company in the world to develop and install a fully integrated credit risk, market risk, asset and liability management, and transfer pricing system. Kamakura has clients ranging in size from $3 billion in assets to $1 trillion in assets. Kamakura's risk management software is currently used in the United States, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, China and many other countries in Asia.
Kamakura's research effort is led by Professor Robert Jarrow, who was named Financial Engineer of the Year in 1997 by the International Association of Financial Engineers. Professor Jarrow and Dr. van Deventer were both named to the 50 member RISK Hall of Fame in December 2002. Kamakura management has published twenty-one books and more than 100 publications on credit risk, market risk, and asset and liability management. Kamakura has world-wide distribution alliances with IPS-Sendero and Unisys, making Kamakura products available in almost every major city around the globe.
For more information contact
Kamakura Corporation
2222 Kalakaua Ave.
Suite 1400
Honolulu, HI 96815
Telephone: 1-808-791-9888
Facsimile: 1-808-791-9898
Information: info@kamakuraco.com
Web site: www.kamakuraco.com