With effect from and including Thursday 23 December, Oslo Børs will apply a new weighting rule for the OBX index. At the date of the twice-yearly review of the composition of the index, the total weight of all companies registered outside the EEA area will be capped at 10% of the index.
The OBX consists of the 25 most widely traded shares listed on Oslo Børs. The change to the index rules is being made to avoid the adverse impact caused by the fact that investments made by Norwegian limited companies in derivative products based on the OBX Index fall under a different tax regime if the total weighting in the index of companies from outside the EEA area exceeds 10%.
A comparison of the ”old” and ”new” OBX based on figures for 2010 shows a correlation of 99.955%.
In parallel with the change to the OBX Index, Oslo Børs is to launch a new index, OBXI (OBX International), which will continue to apply the current rules for the composition of the OBX Index after 23 December 2010.
When the new rule for the OBX Index comes into effect on Thursday 23 December, the companies in the OBX Index that are registered outside the EEA will be as follows: Frontline, Golden Ocean Group, Questerre Energy Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Seadrill and Subsea 7. Oslo Børs will issue a separate announcement via Newsweb on Thursday morning showing the revised weighting of these companies in the index (www.newsweb.no). There will be no change to the companies included in the index.
The new weighting rule will apply in addition to the existing rules for adjusting for free float: The weighting of the largest company in the index must not exceed 30% and no other company can have a weighting of more than 15% in the index.
About the OBX Total Return Index
The OBX Index consists of the 25 most traded securities in the OSEBX Index. The constituents are selected on the basis of six months turnover rating. OBX is a semi-annually revised free float adjusted total return index (dividend adjusted) with composition changes and cappings implemented on the third Friday in December and the third Friday in June. The capping rules restrict the weighting of the largest company in the index to a maximum of 30%, no other company can have a weighting of more than 15%, and the total weighting of non-EEA companies is limited to a maximum of 10%. In the period between the composition review dates the number of shares for each constituent is fixed, with the exception of special cappings and continuous adjustments for various corporate actions. The OBX Index is a tradable index with exchange-traded futures and options available.