FTSE Group (“FTSE”), the award winning global index provider in partnership with the African Securities Exchanges Association (“ASEA”), announced the launch of the FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series, an independently calculated, rules-based performance benchmark for Pan African equity portfolios. The launch comes at a time when international investors are seeking exposure to emerging and frontier markets, and focusing in particular on Africa as a source of return and portfolio diversification.
The market capitalization weighted index series measures the performance of eligible securities domiciled in the following 19 African countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The index series is free float and liquidity screened with country weights capped at 20% to ensure the index maintains an accurate representation of the investible opportunity set. The index series has been built to FTSE’s renowned standards of index design, which emphasizes transparency, independence, innovation and strong governance. Price and Total Return variants are calculated on an End of Day basis.
Jonathan Cooper, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at FTSE Group, said: “This launch enables ASEA to address one of its primary goals; to facilitate the development and promotion of products and services for Africa’s capital markets. FTSE has been providing solutions to African investors for 10 years and this new initiative confirms FTSE’s position as Africa’s index provider.”
Sunil Benimadhu, President of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), stated: “The launch of the FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series is a milestone for ASEA. This index aims at tracking the performances of the companies listed on ASEA’s member exchanges and is expected to evolve soon as an attractive investible index that can be used as a performance benchmark for international investors investing on African Stock Exchanges. The timing of the launch is highly opportune with the growing interest of the international investment community for investment opportunities in Africa and in Africa’s listed companies.”
