STOXX Ltd., the operator of Deutsche Boerse Group’s index business, and a global provider of innovative and tradable index concepts, today introduced the EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index which is the only of its kind, tracking the corporate debt of the EURO STOXX 50 companies. As such, the EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index is the fixed income equivalent of the EURO STOXX 50 including the bonds of the top-flight blue-chip companies in the Eurozone.
The highly liquid EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index is designed to act as an underlying for exchange-traded funds and derivatives.
“The EURO STOXX 50 is Europe’s most successful blue-chip equity index. Our transparent and rules-based flagship index provides market participants globally with access to the performance of the key Eurozone equities. We now translate the success factors of our flagship index to the bonds market, by creating the EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index which enables market participants to measure the performance of bonds issued by companies of the EURO STOXX 50. This link allows a consistent analysis of the bond and equity market in the Eurozone,” said Matteo Andreetto, chief executive officer, STOXX Limited. “With this launch, STOXX is for the first time offering a bond index, and the EURO STOXX 50 is going multi-asset.”
The universe for the EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index is defined as bonds issued by EURO STOXX 50 member companies, their respective corporate group and subsidiaries of both. All eligible corporate bonds must have a remaining time to maturity of at least 15 months measured from the respective re-balancing date to the maturity date and must have a minimum nominal amount outstanding of 750 million euro. Only euro-denominated fixed and zero coupon bonds are included. A minimum consolidated bond rating of Investment Grade (BBB and higher) is required. The index is market cap-weighted; capping is applied on issuer level at 20% and industry level at 40%.
STOXX collaborates with IDC (Interactive Data Corporation), a leading market data provider, to use their continuous fixed income evaluated pricing service which provides real-time bond pricing.
The EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index is calculated real-time in euro price and total return versions. Historical data is available from Dec. 31, 2010. The EURO STOXX 50 Corporate Bond Index is reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December.
Please visit www.stoxx.com/fixedincome for further information.
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