Standard & Poor’s, the world’s leading index provider, announced the launch of the S&P Asia Property 40 index, which will provide liquid exposure to the leading publicly-listed companies in the Asian property and real estate markets.
The S&P Asia Property 40 Index is comprised of the 40 leading listed Asian property companies that meet size, liquidity and local listing requirements, with no single market having more than 15 stocks in the index or representing more than 40% of the index. It will be used by banks and asset management companies to create retail investment products.
The index is aimed at providing investors with diversified, investable exposure to the Asian property market. The index is a subset of the S&P/Citigroup Global Property Index, which is comprised of more than 400 stocks from the S&P/Citigroup Broad Market Index (BMI).
Tim Eisenhauer, Vice President, Standard & Poor’s Index Services, said: “We have observed a growing trend in Asia in the securitisation of real estate assets through the public equity markets, as well as the public listing of property management firms. This presents an opportunity for the region’s investors to diversify their own holdings beyond conventional stocks and bonds, and for foreign investors to gain exposure to the long-term growth of the Asian property markets. Standard & Poor’s has launched the S&P Asia Property 40 index because there is currently no tradable index that provides investors efficient access to this Asian asset class.”
The top 10 index companies by market capitalization are:- Mitsubishi Estate
- Swire Pacific Ltd.
- Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.
- Mitsui Fudosan
- Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd.
- CapitaLand
- Country Garden Holdings Co.
- Sumitomo Realty & Development
- Guangzhou R&F Properties
- Hang Lung Properties
The S&P Asia Property 40 Index employs a modified market capitalization-weighting scheme, and is rebalanced after the close of business on the third Friday of November each year. Stocks must have total market capitalization above US$ 1 billion and a three-month average daily value traded above the liquidity threshold of US$ 3 million. All stocks in the selection universe are classified according to country of domicile, with China and Hong Kong being treated as separate countries. Each stock’s domicile must be an Asian country and its primary market listing must be on a regulated Asian stock exchange.
