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FTSE Group (“FTSE”), the global index company and Impax Asset Management (“Impax”), the specialist environmental investment manager, have signed an agreement to further develop the Impax Environmental Technology (ET50) Index. From December 2007, FTSE will take over the calculation and management of the index, which will be rebranded the “FTSE ET50 Index” and will be available for investors to use as the basis of structured products, ETFs and index funds.
Impax Asset Management, a specialist investment manager in the environmental technology sector (which includes the alternative energy, water treatment, pollution control and waste management markets), designed and launched the ET50 Index in 1999 to measure the performance of companies whose core businesses is in the development and deployment of environmental technologies. Impax chose FTSE to take responsibility for the calculation of the ET50 Index because of FTSE’s proven indexing expertise and its commitment to providing investors with a set of responsible investment tools.
The FTSE ET50 Index comprises the largest fifty pure play environmental technology companies by market capitalisation worldwide. These are taken from a larger universe of over 500 global companies currently researched by Impax.
Will Oulton, Head of Responsible Investment at FTSE commented, “There is increasing global institutional investor interest in companies that will be best placed to succeed in a future low carbon world. The environment is now a key issue for global investors, and by applying the FTSE methodology to the ET50 Index, Impax and FTSE will provide an investible and transparent measure of the performance of the environmental technology sector for pension funds and asset managers globally.”
Ian Simm, Chief Executive of Impax, commented: “As one of the leading investment managers in the environmental sector, Impax has used the ET50 Index for over eight years as an informal benchmark of the sector’s performance. We are now delighted to be able to partner with FTSE to strengthen the foundations of the index and to make it available to investors worldwide.”
