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Standard & Poor’s, the world’s leading index provider, today announced the launch of three new benchmark and investable indices - S&P Pan Africa, S&P Africa Frontier and S&P Africa 40. The new indices are designed to provide investors with access to Africa’s developing equity markets, as well as being a complete measurement tool for the performance of these markets.
The S&P Pan Africa Index covers 12 African markets – Botswana, Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. The S&P Africa Frontier Index covers eight smaller frontier markets from sub-Saharan Africa, including Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
The indices aim to capture 80% of the total market capitalisation of each country, and thus provide investors with a comprehensive benchmark on African markets. The S&P African Frontier Index gained over 52% over the last three years, while the S&P Pan Africa Index has gained over 18% in the same period.
The S&P Africa 40 Index is designed to provide tradable exposure to 40 of the largest and most liquid companies that operate purely in Africa. Companies must be domiciled in Africa or have the majority of their assets and operations in Africa. The index is dominated by companies from the financial, materials, telecommunications and industrials sectors, with MTN Group (South Africa), Orascom Construction (Egypt), First Quantum Minerals (Zambia) and Standard Bank Group (South Africa) among the largest constituents. On a historical basis, the S&P Africa 40 recorded returns of 36.35% from March 2007 to March 2008, and 49.78% annualised on a three year basis.
“The strong performance of many African markets has made the region an increasingly attractive investment opportunity. These three new indices provide investors with a unique exposure to the African equity markets,” said Steve Goldin, Vice President, Portfolio Services for Standard & Poor's.
The S&P Africa Index Series is part of Standard & Poor’s S&P/ IFCG and S&P Frontier indices, which date back to 1984, along with the more recent tradable and investable regional index family, which includes the S&P BRIC 40 and the S&P Southeast Asia 40. S&P’s coverage of African markets dates back to 1975.
For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices
