Bermuda-based investment company W.P. Stewart & Co., Ltd. announced yesterday that the W.P. Stewart Holdings N.V. fund has been awarded first place in the Standard & Poor's (S&P) Offshore Fund Awards 2002 for the Equity North America Sector, one-year category.

The S&P Offshore Fund Awards are presented each year to the top performing funds across a variety of sectors in the offshore investment fund industry and is based on an assessment of both the performance of a fund and the volatility of the performance. The S&P approach measures the relative performance of a fund and the consistency of the relative performance compared to its peers.

W.P. Stewart Holdings N.V. placed first among the 25 funds included in the Equity North America Sector for the 12-month period ended 31st December 2001 and the fund has consistently ranked in the first quartile of funds in this sector in the one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods during the past decade.

Commenting on the award, William P. Stewart, Chairman and CEO of W.P. Stewart & Co., Ltd. said: "We are pleased to have received this award for the fund that has demonstrated the most consistent outperformance in its category over the last year. I believe this reflects the merits of our long-term approach to the investment of clients' funds, even in turbulent financial markets."

W.P. Stewart Holdings N.V. is an open-ended investment fund quoted and traded on Euronext Amsterdam (WPSH). The fund is managed by a subsidiary of W.P. Stewart & Co., Ltd. Shares of W.P. Stewart Holdings N.V. are currently available only to investors outside the United States.