Freddie Mac Ranked Second in Nation's Top 50 Corporations

March 27, 2002

Freddie Mac earned the number two spot on BusinessWeek magazine's sixth annual ranking of the nation's 50 best-performing large public corporations. This marks the fourth time Freddie Mac has achieved this list.

BW Rank Company Name
1 Johnson & Johnson
2 Freddie Mac
3 Pfizer Inc.
4 MBNA Corp
5 Philip Morris Cos. Inc
6 KLA-Tencor Corp
7 Fannie Mae
8 Lowes Cos.  Inc.
9 Best Buy Inc.
10 AmerisourceBerrgen Corp

According to BusinessWeek, the top companies in 2002 demonstrated an ability to prosper in both good times and bad. The magazine characterized the "Class of 02" as maintaining a tight strategic focus on their core businesses, paying attention to the small details that make up a business and always looking for ways to make an improvement.

"By and large, this year's stars steered clear of faddish telecom deals, trendy agglomerations and hyperaggressive accounting techniques that have come back to haunt so many of the companies in earlier rankings," BusinessWeek reports.

"As far as the quality of assets being hedged, Fannie and Freddie have the best mortgage portfolios of just about any financial institution, thanks to their charters' strict guidelines," according to BusinessWeek.

BusinessWeek also reported, "Between their rock-solid credit, hedging techniques, and strong capitalization, Freddie and Fannie seem well-positioned to continue their growth for many years. Demographic trends such as the echo baby boomers moving into their home-buying years and increased immigration continue to work in their favor."

The BusinessWeek 50 list ranks every company in the S&P 500 index on eight key criteria of financial success: sales, profits, and return to shareholders. To reward consistency, performance is measured over both one year and three years.

The complete list is available athttp://www.businessweek.com.

Source: Freddie Mac


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