* Safran jointly makes engines for many Boeing models with General Electric in their CFM joint venture.

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However, the list has been topped by British telecom major Vodafone, which is present in India through a joint venture with Ruias-led Essar group and had an Indian origin person, Arun Sarin, as its CEO till August this year.

Vodafone, which has moved to the top from its fifth position last year, is followed by American diversified conglomerate General Electric, British financial services giant HSBC Holdings, French telecom firm France Telecom (4th) and UK banking major HBOS in the top five.

British Petroleum, which topped the list in 2007, has slipped to the ninth position in this year's list. Others in the top 10 include Finnish phone maker Nokia (6th), Electricite de France (7th), Suez (8th) and Royal Dutch Shell (10th).

Fortune partnered with AccountAbility, Csrnetwork and Asset4 to rank the companies in the list "by the quality of their commitment to social and environmental goals".

Pandit-led Citi has jumped 15 places to 17th rank in the accountability ranking, while ArcelorMittal is now placed at the 73rd position, making significant improvement from the last year's 96th rank.

The 100 most accountable companies are selected from among those included in the Fortune Global 500 list, which ranks the companies on the basis of annual turnover.

There were seven Indian companies in this year's Fortune Global 500 list, published in July, and included Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Reliance Industries (RIL), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Tata Steel, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and State Bank of India (SBI). While none of Indian companies have made to the latest accountability rankings, in various rich lists prepared by publications like Forbes, Indian business leaders have continuously grabbed many top positions.

In this year's list of world's richest persons published by Forbes in March, there were four Indians -- Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and K P Singh in the top 10.

The US has the biggest presence with 31 companies on the list, while there are nine British firms. India is the only BRIC nation with no presence on the list, while there are three Chinese firms, two from Russia and one from Brazil.

Among other countries, 13 are from Germany, 10 from France and eight from Japan.

The accountability rating is mainly based on four parameters -- strategic intent, governance and management systems, engagement and operational performance.

While strategic intent focusses on whether the business strategy is designed with a consideration of relevant social and environmental trends and impacts, the governance and management systems examines whether senior executives and the advisory board consider stakeholders' issues when making strategy and formulating corporate policy.

Further, engagement analyses whether the company engaged in dialogue with people who have an interest -- on account of being affected by, or can affect its business, and operational performance is based on whether the company is managing its most important social and environmental impacts.

On Vodafone, the report said that it "reclaimed the top spot in 2008 (it ranked No. 5 last year and No. 1 in 2006) by upping its green game. Vodafone in April said it would chop half of its carbon dioxide emissions by 2020..." Noting that the company also gets good grades for reporting the details of the campaign - and whether or not it's going well - on a continuous basis, the magazine said such transparency apparently is part of the Vodafone culture.

"The firm reports its progress on past commitments, and also discloses deadlines for future promises, such as its pledge to recycle 95 per cent of network equipment waste (March 2009) and plans to reduce work-related accidents that cause lost time by 10 per cent (March 2011)," it added.

Industry trends and drivers have a direct or indirect affect on IT spending of all companies operating within an industry. For example - increased threat perception and incidence of fraud would result in increase in demand for security software and hardware. Thus, we can conclude that industry spending on any particular IT product or service is an important indicator of the criticality of that product or service for the industry. Based on the IT spend information available in 'TechNavio', we have computed a 'criticality score' for various IT products and services, for General Electric, P&G and Pfizer.

Various company level developments and events are important indicators of selling opportunities and drive the sales of IT products and services. For example - an acquisition by General Electric, P&G and Pfizer might result in opportunities for IT migration and integration services. By tracking these sales drivers (using 'TechNavio'), we have arrived at a demand score for each product and service.

Key Topics Covered:

-General Electric

-1. Company Overview

-2. IT Spending & Deployments

-3. IT Sales Opportunities

-4. Sales Drivers

-5. Conclusion

-6. Key IT Decision Makers

-P&G

-Pfizer Inc.

-Appendix

-List of Exhibits

Companies Mentioned:

- General Electric

- P&G

- Pfizer Inc.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/a32f33/leading_manufactur

SOURCE: Research and Markets

Research and Markets 
Laura Wood 
Senior Manager 
press@researchandmarkets.com 
Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 
Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716

Unitranche Fund LLC was formed in December 2007 by affiliates of GE Commercial Finance and Allied Capital to deliver a reliable, single-source unitranche loan product to companies with EBITDA of $15 - $90 million.

"We are delighted to have worked with Whitney to complete this transaction," said John Volpe, Senior Managing Director of GE Commercial Finance. Dan Russell, Managing Director of Allied Capital, added, "Together with GE, we were able to deliver a unitranche loan and provide a one-stop debt solution to the transaction with simplicity, efficiency and certainty of close."

Paul Vigano, a Managing Director at Whitney commented, "The unitranche financing provided by these two trusted lenders was critical to completing this transaction."

About Unitranche Fund LLC

Unitranche Fund LLC (the "Fund") was formed in December 2007 by Allied Capital and GE Commercial Finance. The Fund can invest up to $270 million for a single borrower, while Allied Capital and GE Commercial Finance may jointly underwrite amounts above that, up to $500 million in total debt financing. The Fund targets investments in a wide range of industry sectors, including business services, healthcare, media, energy, aerospace and transportation. A unitranche loan blends senior and junior debt pricing and terms into a single first lien debt facility, and provides a simple, attractive alternative to traditional senior/subordinated debt structures. Borrowers benefit from simplified documentation through a single credit agreement, greater certainty of execution, and reduced decision-making complexity throughout the life of the loan.

About GE Antares Capital

GE Antares Capital is a unit of GE Commercial Finance - Global Sponsor Finance. With $13 billion in assets, and offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, GE Antares offers a "one-stop" source for GE's lending and other services offered to middle market private equity sponsors. For more information, visit the GE Antares website at www.geantares.com.

About GE Commercial Finance

GE Commercial Finance, which offers businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services, has assets of approximately $300 billion and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company that is built to meet essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and information, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com. GE is Imagination at Work.

About Allied Capital

Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD) is a leading business development company (BDC) in the U.S. that invests long-term debt and equity capital in middle market businesses nationwide. Founded in 1958 and operating as a public company since 1960, Allied Capital is celebrating 50 years of investing in the U.S. entrepreneurial economy. With approximately $5 billion in total balance sheet assets at June 30, 2008, Allied Capital is among the largest BDCs with a diverse portfolio of investments in 120 companies across a variety of industries. These companies generate aggregate revenues of over $13 billion and employ more than 98,000 people. In addition to its own balance sheet assets, Allied Capital manages private funds with committed capital totaling $5 billion. For more information, please visit www.alliedcapital.com.

About J.H. Whitney & Co.

J.H. Whitney & Co., established in 1946, was one of the first U.S. private equity firms pioneering the development of the private equity industry. Today, J.H. Whitney remains privately owned and its main activity is to provide private equity capital for small and middle market companies. J.H. Whitney is currently investing its sixth private equity fund, J.H. Whitney VI, L.P., for major endowments, foundations, pension plans, and high net-worth families. Investment activities are focused on small and middle market buyouts of market leading companies that are poised for growth in a number of industries including consumer products and retail, healthcare services, specialty manufacturing and business services.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information contained in this press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results and conditions to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: GE Commercial Finance

GE Commercial Finance, Norwalk 
Ned Reynolds, 203-229-5717 
ned.reynolds@ge.com 
or 
Allied Capital Corporation 
Shelley Huchel, 202-721-6100 
Director of Investor Relations