FTSE Group (“FTSE”), the award-winning global index provider, today announces its partnership with Paris-based asset manager TOBAM. This new partnership will further expand FTSE’s growing range of non-market cap-weighted indices, extending investors’ options in this rapidly-growing arena.
TOBAM’s innovative approach, already patented in Australia with patent pending in the USA and several other countries, seeks maximum diversification via a systematic quantitative methodology, avoiding the concentration risk in certain markets associated with market cap-weighted indices. Created in 2005 by Yves Choueifaty, TOBAM currently manages nearly $2 billion, primarily for large pension funds, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), one of the world’s largest plan sponsors.
The new index series will join FTSE’s growing non-market cap-weighted index range, developed in partnership with established experts in this field. The range provides investors with robust, low-cost and transparent solutions designed to complement existing market cap strategies. Adding the TOBAM series will offer investors an approach specifically designed to maximise diversification, and thus avoid the risk concentration to which cap-weighted strategies are susceptible.
Mark Makepeace, Chief Executive FTSE Group said: “FTSE was the first global index company to offer non market capital weighted indices in 2005. Including the Maximum Diversification Strategy developed by TOBAM was the logical next step for FTSE. Investors globally are increasingly demanding alternative routes to the diversification of risk, using more complex index solutions. This partnership with TOBAM further extends the choice of index solutions available to our clients.”
Yves Choueifaty, President of TOBAM, confirmed that “This partnership with FTSE is both a milestone for TOBAM and an ideal way to leverage the momentum we are currently experiencing, with assets under management having grown by more than 30% YTD. FTSE is the market reference for non market capital weighted indices and was an obvious choice for TOBAM.”