Franchises Outperformed the Broad Indices Once Again

ARLINGTON, VA, April 24, 2013

The FRANdex containing publicly traded franchise companies continued to outpace the broader market indices according FRANdex manager FRANdata, an independent company that tracks and analyzes franchises and their performance.

The overall U.S. economy finished the first quarter strongly with an improved housing market, positive reports on retail sales and automotive sale, and a lowered unemployment rate. Correspondingly, the stock market rallied through the first three months with major indices breaking through record highs. Small-cap stocks, as measured by Russell 2000, surged 12%, followed by the S&P at 10%. With gains just shy of 15%, FRANdex outperformed the broader indices once again. This marks the sixth consecutive quarter of increases for the index.

Based on the actual index levels without normalization over the past 28 quarters, FRANdex's period-over-period changes were on average 1.3% higher than that for S&P and 1.0% higher than that for Russell 2000.

About FRANdex and FRANdex+M
FRANdex and FRANdex+M track the performance, based on market capitalization, of the largest 44 and 45 U.S. publicly-traded companies, respectively, that use the business format franchising model. Collectively the companies operate 107 franchise brands. All index levels are normalized to 1,000 at Q1 2006 for comparison purposes and all remaining periods are adjusted accordingly. FRANdex+M includes the McDonald's Corporation. Since McDonald's represents more than 25% of the overall market capitalization of publicly-traded franchise companies, it is excluded from FRANdex but included in FRANdex+M for comparative purposes. FRANdex includes publicly traded companies where franchising is material to the company's financial performance and business operations.

About FRANdata
FRANdata is an independent research company that tracks and analyzes franchises and their performance. The Arlington, Va.-based company is often called upon by investors and private equityfirms to help them identify brands that meet their target performance metrics, and provide due diligence research as the deal progresses. FRANdata is often cited as an expert in such leading media as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Additional information is available on the company's website, http://www.frandata.com