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This month, Solactive AG celebrates its ten-year anniversary. Solactive was founded in 2007 with the goal of proposing a model focused on efficiency and flexibility, and thus improve customers’ indexing experience. This unique business model has allowed the company to distinguish itself from competitors and gain market share in an industry that has traditionally been dominated by a few established players.
Over ten years, the small index shop has grown to be one of the market leaders in the indexing industry, calculating more than 4,500 indices for over 350 clients. Today Solactive has 85 staff in Frankfurt, and will soon establish its international presence with the opening of its first office outside of Germany in Toronto. The Canada office, which will be fully functional from January 2018, will serve as an operational hub, offering EST time- zone coverage to respond to the growing demand in the region. This strategic move brings the company one step closer to providing 24/7 business service to its clients across the world. Bernd Henseler, Head of Americas, will be supervising the establishment of operations in Toronto.
At the managerial level, Solactive has made a number of important key hires in recent months in order to support the company’s growth trend. These have included Fabian Colin as Head of Sales, Stephen Chew as Head of Platform Management, Timo Pfeiffer as Head of Research & Business Development, Bernd Henseler as Head of Americas, and Christian Vollmuth as Chief Risk Officer. Christian, in charge of legal, compliance and regulatory affairs, will also be responsible for ensuring compliance with the upcoming Benchmarks Regulation (BMR), the provisions of which will begin to take effect as of January 1, 2018.
Under the BMR, index providers are obliged to register by January 1, 2020. The BMR provides a regulatory framework that will help create more transparency across benchmarks and reduce the risk of index manipulation.
At the product level, exciting news awaits our clients. First of all, the first research-based indices were recently launched. These include the Intuitive Beta™ Index Family, consisting of a suite of smart beta indices relying on a qualitative framework of intuitive screens, and the Solactive Minimum Downside Volatility Series, which seeks to minimise downside risk exposure.
In addition, following the success of our previously-launched broad-market indices, including the Solactive Spain 40 Index underlying the db x-trackers Spanish Equity UCITS ETF (DR) and the Solactive Swiss Large Cap Index underlying the db x-trackers Swiss Large Cap UCITS ETF (DR), we soon expect the release of the Solactive Global Benchmark Series. These market-cap-weighted benchmarks will enable customers to gain cost-efficient exposure to individual countries, regions and global markets.
On the fixed-income side, Solactive has managed to successfully complete coverage of the investment-grade and high-yield corporate bond markets denominated in EUR and USD with the launch of four benchmarks, namely the Solactive Euro HY Corporate Index, the Solactive USD High Yield Corporate Index, the Solactive USD Investment Grade Corporate Index, and the Solactive Euro IG Corporate Index. Furthermore, Solactive is expanding its footprint in Canada with a growing number of ETFs using its family of Canadian fixed- income indices.
Steffen Scheuble, CEO of Solactive, commented: “This has been a wonderful ten-year journey full of excitements and challenges. Today there are more than 260 ETFs tracking indices calculated by us with over USD 50 billion in AuM. This clearly shows that our business model is creating value for customers. I believe this is just the starting point of many more years of success. I want to thank everyone that has made this possible.”
For further information please visit: www.solactive.com
