MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, today released “How European is Europe?”, a new research brief examining how a company’s economic exposure – where a company draws its revenues from versus where the company is headquartered – is becoming an increasingly important consideration for global investors.

Using Europe as an example, one of the two developed markets regions with the highest exposure to Emerging Markets (nearly 23%), the paper illustrates how some European companies have been able to weather challenges on a domestic front by growing revenues across international markets.

“With the continued integration of world markets, companies are exposed to economic activity on a global scale,” said Brett Hammond, Managing Director, Index Applied Research, MSCI. “As more and more companies look for opportunities across the globe, investors need to understand where companies do business. Economic exposure provides a new dimension to the investment process and should become an important consideration in the construction and evaluation of global equity portfolios.”

The findings are drawn from the recently launched MSCI Economic Exposure Security Data modules, that provide revenue exposures for nearly 2,500 large- and mid-cap companies in the MSCI ACWI Index, a global equity index consisting of developed and emerging markets countries.

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About MSCI

MSCI Inc. is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. MSCI products and services include indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and governance tools.

The company’s flagship product offerings are: the MSCI indices with close to USD 7 trillion estimated to be benchmarked to them on a worldwide basis¹; Barra multi-asset class factor models, portfolio risk and performance analytics; RiskMetrics multi-asset class market and credit risk analytics; IPD real estate information, indices and analytics; IPD real estate information, indices and analytics; MSCI ESG (environmental, social and governance) Research screening, analysis and ratings; ISS governance research and outsourced proxy voting and reporting services; FEA valuation models and risk management software for the energy and commodities markets; and CFRA forensic accounting risk research, legal/regulatory risk assessment, and due‐diligence. MSCI is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world.

¹As of March 31, 2012, as published by eVestment, Lipper and Bloomberg in September, 2012.

For further information on MSCI, please visit our web site at www.msci.com