New FTSE Eurotop 100 Means Business In Europe

The pace of change in Europe's financial markets is growing ever faster and it is important that those serving this market keep pace. With this in mind, FTSE International has reviewed the design of the FTSE Eurotop 100 index and has made a number of changes. All these changes are effective after the close of business on Friday 16 June. The rationale behind these changes is: To more accurately reflect the underlying European market; To ensure that the index keeps up with the pace of change in Europe; To make the index more "investible", transparent and predictable.

The main changes are listed below and a full copy of the rules of the new FTSE Eurotop 100 rules are available on FTSE International's internet site (www.ftse.com).

The FTSE Eurotop 100 constituents will be selected according to their full market capitalisation. The FTSE Eurotop 100 will now consist of the largest 100 companies in Europe.

The current "fixed basket" construction of the index (i.e. where the shares in issue for each company in the index are "fixed" at the index review and not amended throughout the year) will be replaced by a system which will update the shares in issue used for each index constituent when there has been a significant change in the number of shares in issue for any index constituent.

The FTSE Eurotop 100 annual review will move from April to June each year.

FTSE International and Amsterdam Exchanges will jointly own the new FTSE Eurotop 100. The trademark "Eurotop" will continue to be owned by Amsterdam Exchanges.

Mark Makepeace, Managing Director, FTSE International commented, "The new FTSE Eurotop 100 will better represent Europe today and will continue to reflect changes in the European market in future. The changes make the new index easier to track and trade and, as a result, I expect the liquidity on FTSE Eurotop 100 futures and options contracts to grow substantially. "