German ETF specialist Indexchange has signed licensing agreements with Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Ltd and SAM Group for new products based
German ETF specialist Indexchange has signed licensing agreements with Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Ltd and SAM Group for new products based on three indexes.
Indexchange is now planning to launch the first ETFs based on the Dow Jones Asia/Pacific Select Dividend 30 Index, the Dow Jones China Offshore 50 Index, and the Dow Jones Euro STOXX Sustainability 40 Index.
The Dow Jones Asia/Pacific Select Dividend 30 Index measures the performance of the top 30 stocks by dividend yield in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. To be included in the index, companies must pass the following criteria:
- The company must have paid dividends in each of the previous three years;
- The company’s dividend-per-share in the previous year must be greater than or equal to its three-year average; and
- To assure dividend quality, the company’s five-year average dividend payout can’t be more than 85% of its per-share earnings or any greater than 1.5 times the payout ratio of the corresponding Dow Jones country index. A company’s weight in the index is based on its dividend yield.
The Dow Jones China Offshore 50 Index represents the largest, super-sector leaders of companies whose primary operations are in mainland China but trade at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq or American Stock Exchange. Stocks included in the index are H shares, red chips, ADR/ADS and Chinese stocks listed in the US If a stock is traded on two or more overseas exchanges, only the listing with the highest trading volume is included in the selection universe.
The Dow Jones Euro STOXX Sustainability 40 Index comprises the 40 biggest sustainability leaders in the Euro zone. The index is weighted according to sustainability scores and is, thus, based on the results of SAM’s annual sustainability assessment. The scores are derived from a comprehensive analysis of general as well as industry-specific criteria covering all three dimensions of sustainability – economic, environmental and social. Components are selected from the existing broad Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index which includes the top European companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria.
Background notes: Dow Jones Indexes is part of Dow Jones & Company, which publishes the world’s most vital business and financial news and information. Dow Jones Indexes is a premier global provider of investable indexes, including the Dow Jones Averages and the Dow Jones Global, Regional, Country and Sector Titans Indexes and is co-owner of the Pan-European Dow Jones STOXX Indexes. Together with Wilshire Associates, Dow Jones Indexes markets and licenses the Dow Jones Wilshire index family, which includes the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and its size, style, and sector indexes. Dow Jones Indexes also offers a number of specialty indexes including hedge fund, commodity and credit derivative indexes.
In addition to Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron’s and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva and with Hearst of SmartMoney. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
SAM Group was established in Zurich in 1995 as the first financial services group focused exclusively on the integration of economic, environmental and social criteria into investing. The company’s services comprise asset management, research, private equity and indexing. In 1999, SAM teamed up with Dow Jones Indexes to launch the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) – the first benchmarks tracking the performance of sustainability leaders on a global scale. Two years later, European index provider STOXX Limited joined this cooperation to expand the DJSI family with European and Eurozone sustainability benchmarks – the DJSI STOXX and DJSI EURO STOXX. Since then, the DJSI family grew further with the introduction of the DJSI North America, DJSI United States, DJSI STOXX 40 and DJSI EURO STOXX 40. The selection of index components follows a rules-based process defined in the DJSI Guidebooks. It is based on a thorough assessment of general and industry-specific sustainability criteria. The analysis is assured by an external auditor.
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