Jan Willem will be based in Standard & Poor's new office in Dubai from November 2007 and will lead efforts to further strengthen the company's presence across the region's rapidly evolving capital markets. Mr Plantagie, who joined the company in 1998, has been coordinator of Standard & Poor's Middle East Taskforce since 2005, and was most recently managing director and head of the project finance, PPP and transport infrastructure team at Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

"With Jan's extensive knowledge of the Middle East market generally and Islamic finance specifically, he will contribute significantly to championing Standard & Poor's strengths and capabilities in this dynamic growth region," said Torsten Hinrichs, managing director of Standard & Poor's Europe. "Already the largest provider of credit ratings in the Gulf, Standard & Poor's has built a very strong platform from which to expand. Through our credit ratings on Shariah-compliant issues and issuers and the launch of new Shariah indicies covering the BRIC, Arab and Asian markets in 2007, Standard & Poor's has demonstrated a deep understanding of Islamic finance spanning the world's debt and equity markets."

Sukuk issuance has flourished over the last three years, providing sovereigns, corporations and banks with an alternative way of structuring their funding, and Standard & Poor's believes new laws that encourage both home ownership and mortgage borrowing are likely to provide a platform for a securitization market in the Middle East. Standard & Poor's now rates more than $12 billion of listed sukuk worldwide, including landmark issues from DP World and Saad Trading in 2007. The ongoing rollout of our Shariah index series is giving Islamic investors worldwide exposure to the same headline markets that conventional investors have enjoyed for years, and the launch of fund management ratings in the Gulf later this year is expected to bring a new level of transparency to the wealth management sector.

McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's parent company, has been active in the Middle East since the early 1990's. In opening an office in Dubai, Standard & Poor's joins McGraw-Hill Education, a leading global provider of text books for secondary and tertiary education, and Platts, the world's most trusted, reliable, independent provider of comprehensive, energy news and pricing information, which established offices in Dubai Media City in 2001.