Gartmore News in Brief

Gartmore's view on recent market activity

Yesterday, Chinese stocks bounced back by almost 4% and recouped some of yesterday's losses when Asian equities fell sharply, with the Chinese stock market down by over 8%.

The knock-on effect of this event was felt worldwide and generated volatility in global equity markets, a situation that we believe provides both risks and opportunities for investors.

Our fund managers constantly assess all short-term events and monitor market fundamentals to ensure all portfolios are positioned relative to market movements to meet their investment objectives and achieve the best long-term results for our clients.

To read the views of our China, Emerging Markets, UK, Europe, MultiManager, US and Fixed Interest investment teams please paste the following link into your browser to be taken straight to the commentary - www.gartmore.com/uk/advisers/markets.htm.

New Moody's Bank Ratings Fail to Find Market Approval "The first-stage roll-out of the new Joint Default Analysis (JDA) ratings for banks by Moody's Investors Service last Friday night surprised the market, with the Icelandic banks notably achieving upgrades of four or even five rating notches".

"The sell side has been scathing of this new rating-methodology approach".

"On this basis, several hundred banks globally have the real chance to be awarded a previously rare AAA rating".

"The credit market was clearly wrong footed by the sheer scale of the upgrades".

"It's another nail in the coffin of fundamental bank analysis in favour of quant-driven modelling," according to Simon Surtees, Senior Investment Manager and Co-head of Fixed Income at Gartmore Investment Management".

""While the credit market reacted very positively in repricing both credit default swaps (CDS) and bonds (especially those of the Icelandic banks), the gains were given up in the global market sell-off midweek".

"The real question is: will the other rating agencies follow suit? We don't think so ..".

"potentially leaving Moody's more of a lone pioneer".

"The buy side is likely to discount some of the high ratings, instead relying more heavily, as Gartmore's fixed income team has done for some time, on the bank financial strength ratings (FSRs)".

"If anything, the new JDA approach of Moody's will lead to the accelerated development of structured products." Gartmore Rolls Out New Website Gartmore Investment Management has relaunched its website with enhanced functions and a crisp new 'look and feel' designed to promote key sales messages.

In the first phase of the redesign, the in-house team responsible for the project has revamped the landing pages of www.gartmore.com and www.gartmore.co.uk.

The UK Investor and Professional Adviser pages have gained new features, including tabbed browsing, which allows the user to keep track of multiple pages.

The goal of the site structure's refashioning is to improve usability, especially to enable clients to access information more easily.

As well as responding to client requests, this initial remodelling of the website brings consistency with Gartmore's ongoing branding exercise, including its current advertising campaign.

The second phase of the redesign will involve the remaining websites, including Institutional, as well as microsites (also known as minisites) dedicated to specific topics.

Until the upgrade is completed, these elements will retain their current look.

Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund receives Lipper Award The Lipper Fund Awards are in full swing and at a recent event held in Spain, the Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund (EUR B), managed by Chris Palmer,andnbsp; was awarded 'Best Fund over past Five Years' in the Equity Emerging Markets Latin America category.

The Lipper Fund program highlights funds that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to peers.

The Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund focuses on investing in Latin American equities which we believe have potential for unexpected earnings with country and stock selection the two key factors.

The Fund has an impressive short-term and long-term performance record.

It is ranked 1st quartile over 1, 2, , 4 and 5 years and since its launch*.

Conference Call with Roger Guy Gartmore's Roger Guy will be the next Investment Manager to be speaking via Gartmore's On Call programme, a series of conference calls organised for Independent Financial Advisers, on Thursday 8th March at 4pm.

Any interested IFAs should speak with their Gartmore Sales contact for details of how to register for this conference call.

Current Offers 1) New investors into the company's investment trust ISA, the Gartmore ISAit,for the duration of the 2007 ISA season.

Initial fee of 3% will be removed from all new investments in Gartmore's investment trust ISAit and PEPit schemes Lump sum and minimum transfer value will be reduced from GBP3,000 to GBP1,000 Minimum amount for the monthly savings on ISAit will be reduced from GBP100 to GBP50 Gartmore, rather than the underlying investor, will bear the cost of commission to IFAs.

2) For the Gartmore Cautious Managed Fund and the Gartmore MultiManager range of Funds, for all lump sum investments until 30 April 2007 1% discount on the initial charge 4% initial commission Ends *Source: Lipper.

Basis: Mid to mid, gross income reinvested and net of fees in euros.

As at 23rd February 2007.Over 5 years, the Fund achieved 26.9% against the Lipper IMA UK OS EQ Latin America Sector which achieved 21.9% over the same period.

The Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund was launched on 29th October 2004.

The assets of the Gartmore Capital Strategy ("GCSF") Latin America Fund were amalgamated with the assets of the Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund on 24th March 2005.

The past performance shown for the Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund prior to 24th March 2005 is the past performance of the GCSF Latin America Fund.

After 24th March 2005 the past performance appearing as that of the Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund will be the past performance of the accumulated assets of the Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund which will include the assets previously invested in the GCSF Latin America Fund.

Due to this amalgamation, performance figures obtained from sources other than Gartmore may vary from those stated above.

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