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SAM, the sustainability investing specialist, and Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced that Seligson & Co Fund Management has signed a license for the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index (DJSI Asia Pacific). This is the first index fund worldwide to track this new benchmark. The Seligson & Co Asia Index Fund expands the asset manager's existing range of two sustainability funds based on the Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability (DJSI STOXX) and Dow Jones Sustainability North America Indexes (DJSI North America).
The DJSI Asia Pacific was introduced earlier this year to track the sustainability leaders within the developed markets in Asia Pacific. The index includes the 20% most sustainable companies out of the largest 600 stocks in the region by free float market capitalization. The underlying SAM assessment covers a variety of issues such as corporate governance, risk management, branding, climate change mitigation, supply chain standards and human capital. The analysis reflects the growing importance investors attribute to sustainability criteria around the globe.
"We are delighted to expand our existing relationship with Seligson and to see them add our new DJSI Asia Pacific to their offering. SAM and Dow Jones Indexes launched this benchmark earlier this year as the complementary piece in our joint index range to cover all three major investment regions. Finland is an exciting market for sustainability investing and we are delighted to provide Seligson with the benchmarks to tap into this opportunity." said Alexander Barkawi, managing director, SAM Indexes.
"Sustainability is continuously moving up investor agendas. Growing interest in the integration of long-term economic, environmental and social factors among Finnish private and institutional investors is a case in point for this. We see significant potential in sustainability investing and we are convinced that the DJSI family provides us with the best platform to meet client demand in this field," says Ari Kaaro, managing director, Seligson & Co Fund Management.
Introduced in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are the longest-running benchmarks that track the performance of sustainability leaders on a global scale. Today, the DJSI family is used by asset managers in 16 countries as benchmark and investment universe for a wide variety of financial products including mutual funds, separate accounts, structured products and ETFs.
