NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and SAM Group, a pioneer in sustainability investing, today launched the world's first index that merges Islamic investing principles and sustainability criteria by combining the methodology of the well-established Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index represents companies that are compatible with Islamic investment guidelines, while at the same time are determined to be corporate sustainability leaders. To be included in the index, companies must be components of both the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. Currently, 105 companies are included in the index and are thus suitable for investors who want to apply stringent Islamic screens as well as best-in-class sustainability criteria.
"This new index is another innovative product that Dow Jones Indexes created to respond to market demand," said Mike Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "The Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index was developed in cooperation with SAM Group to meet the growing demand for compliant equity indexes based on internationally acknowledged Islamic finance standards and sustainability criteria."
"SAM has repeatedly received inquiries from asset managers who want to combine Islamic investment principles with a thorough selection of leading companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria," said Alexander Barkawi, managing director, SAM Indexes. "We are excited to meet this demand with this new offering and to provide a solid platform for sustainability-driven investments within the growing market for Islamic finance products."
Dow Jones Indexes launched its Islamic index family in 1999. Today, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index is used by asset managers in 16 countries for a variety of financial products that screen out activities that are incompatible with Islamic investment guidelines. Excluded from the index are stocks of companies in these lines of business: alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products, financial services, defense/weapons, and entertainment. Also excluded are companies that fail any of three financial ratios: total debt divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization is greater than or equal to 33% or more; cash plus interest-bearing securities divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization is greater than or equal to 33%; and accounts receivables divided by total assets is greater than or equal to 33% or more.
The DJSI family was launched in 1999 to provide the world's first global sustainability index. It is provided through the cooperation of Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Limited and SAM Group and comprises the leading companies in terms of long-term economic, environmental and social criteria. Today, the DJSI family is licensed to investment firms in 14 countries as underlying and benchmark for a variety of financial products including mutual funds, separate accounts, structured products and an exchange-traded fund listed on Euronext. In total, well over $4 billion are presently managed in DJSI-based investment vehicles.
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About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes is part of Dow Jones & Company, which publishes the world's most vital business and financial news and information. Dow Jones Indexes is a premier global provider of investable indexes, including the Dow Jones Averages and the Dow Jones Global, Regional, Country and Sector Titans Indexes and is co-owner of the Pan-European Dow Jones STOXX Indexes. Together with Wilshire Associates, Dow Jones Indexes markets and licenses the Dow Jones Wilshire index family, which includes the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and its size, style, and sector indexes. Dow Jones Indexes also offers a number of specialty indexes including hedge fund, commodity and credit derivative indexes.
In addition to Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) (dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva and with Hearst of SmartMoney. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
SAM Group
SAM Group was established in Zurich in 1995 as the first financial services group focused exclusively on the integration of economic, environmental and social criteria into investing. The company's services comprise asset management, research, private equity and indexing. In 1999, SAM teamed up with Dow Jones Indexes to launch the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) -- the first benchmarks tracking the performance of sustainability leaders on a global scale. Two years later, European index provider STOXX Limited joined this cooperation to expand the DJSI family with European and Eurozone sustainability benchmarks -- the DJSI STOXX and DJSI EURO STOXX. In 2005, the DJSI family grew further with the introduction of the DJSI North America and DJSI United States. The selection of index components follows a rules-based process defined in the DJSI Guidebooks. It is based on a thorough assessment of general and industry-specific sustainability criteria. The analysis is assured by an external auditor. Full details about the design philosophy, review methodology and index components are freely available at www.sam-group.com and www.sustainability-indexes.com.