STATE STREET RESEARCH & MANAGEMENT COMPANY SELECTED BY SALOMON SMITH BARNEY AS INVESTMENT MANAGER FOR SEPARATELY MANAGED ACCOUNT PROGRAM

BOSTON, Mass., April 25, 2002 - State Street Research & Management Company,one of the nation's oldest investment managers, announced today that it hasbeen selected by Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) to offer State Street Research'ssmall-cap growth product through one of SSB's managed account programs. TheFiduciary Services Program has the greatest number of accounts of any of theSSB separately managed programs, and is delivered by The Consulting Group, adivision of SSB and leader in investment management consulting.

The Consulting Group's Fiduciary Services Program provides accessfor investors to individually managed portfolios. The services aredelivered through a national network of more than 12,000 SSB FinancialConsultants in 450 offices around the country. Financial Consultants alsocan draw on the research capabilities and other resources of SSB, afull-service securities firm with 501 offices in 27 countries.

"This is an enormous opportunity for us to increase distribution of oursmall-cap growth product, and we are thrilled to be working with such adistinguished leader in the industry," said Kevin Wilkins, a managingdirector and the head of retail distribution and corporate strategicplanning for State Street Research. "State Street Research has beenworking with financial advisers to offer separately managed accounts formore than three years and diligently building our infrastructure to providethe highest level of service to our financial partners. Our long heritageof investing institutional money in managed accounts has given us thefoundation to build this business and mark this very strategic move inworking with a wirehouse like Salomon Smith Barney." A report published by Cerulli Associates on broker-sponsored separateaccount segments ranked SSB as the nation's largest distributor of managedaccounts, as of the end of 2001.The objective of State Street Research's small-cap growth product is toconsistently outperform the Russell 2000 Growth Index and a peer group ofsmall-cap growth portfolios. For the past five years, the State StreetResearch small-cap growth style has outperformed the Russell 2000 GrowthIndex."As the leader in separately managed accounts, we use a rigorous duediligence process in selecting investment managers and typically limitadmission into the programs to managers maintaining the highest ratings fromour research analysts, " said Glenn T. Regan, CFA, Director of Research atSSB Consulting Group. "Our mission is to provide the highest level ofsophisticated financial advice to our clients and to recommend onlyinvestment advisers that can appropriately execute the client's investmentstrategy."The Consulting Group, a division of Salomon Smith Barney, has been a leaderin investment management consulting over the last 28 years. The group iscommitted to delivering customized, long-term investment strategies forinstitutional and individual clients. Through its exceptional roster ofclient services, comprehensive investment advisor research, cutting-edgetechnology and highly educated financial consultants, the Consulting Groupis well-positioned to provide clients with the analysis and advice needed tomeet the challenges of investing in the new millennium.

State Street Research & Management Company, with a history dating back to1924, is one of the nation's first investment management organizations. TheBoston-based firm is a subsidiary of MetLife (NYSE:MET), one of the world'slargest financial services companies. The firm actively manages stock, bond,real estate and balanced portfolios for both institutional and individualinvestors. As of March 31, 2002, State Street Research managed $51.1 billionin assets, of which $33.8 billion represented institutional clients and$17.3 billion represented retail mutual fund and variable annuityportfolios. The firm manages pension money for many of the largest U.S.corporate pension plans and traces many of its institutional clientrelationships back more than 30 years. State Street Research also managesmoney for union programs, public employee pension plans, foundations,endowments, mutual funds for over 649,000 shareholder accounts, as well asindividually managed accounts for affluent investors. The firm's Web siteaddress is www.ssrfunds.com.