More Aussie Companies Make FTSE4Good
30 March 2005 at 1:03 pm
More Aussie Companies Make FTSE4Good
The FTSE Group, the global index provider has added 61 new companies worldwide to its FTSE4Good global index including 6 Australian companies, but two Australian companies has been withdrawn.
The two companies that were dropped from the index are Woolworths and BlueScope Steel.
The FTSE4Good criteria, which cover areas of environmental sustainability, developing positive relationships with stakeholders and upholding and supporting universal human rights, have evolved since the index was launched in July 2001.
FTSE says the environmental criteria have been tightened significantly with 23 companies being removed from the index (including Woolworths) because they no longer meet these criteria.
All the new additions have met the index criteria that assess companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices based on principles of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI).
The largest number of new companies is from Japan (21).
The Australian companies joining the list are:
Company Country Sector
1 AWB Australia Food Producers & Processors
2 Boral Australia Construction & Building Materials
3 Fosters Group Australia Beverages
4 Incitec Pivot Australia Chemicals
5 Insurance Australia Group Australia Insurance
6 Paperlinx Australia Forestry & Paper
List of Australian companies being removed from the FTSE4Good Index Series are:
Company Country Sector Type of Delete
1 Woolworths (Australia) Australia Food & Drug Retailers Environmental
2 BlueScope Steel Australia Steel & Other Metals Human Rights
Changes to the index took place after the close of the markets on Friday 18th March 2005.
Seven companies from the UK will go into the FTSE4Good index. They are e2v technologies, Management Consulting Group, Morgan Crucible Co., Nord Anglia Education, Surfcontrol and Virgin Mobile Holdings.
Below is the breakdown of the number of companies that are joining and leaving the FTSE4Good index by country:
Australia – Additions, 6 Deletions, 2
Canada – Additions, 1 Deletions, 3
France – Additions, 6
Germany – Additions, 5
Italy – Additions, 1 Deletions, 2
Japan – Additions, 21 Deletions, 2
Netherlands – Additions, 1
Spain – Additions, 1
UK – Additions, 7 Deletions, 7
USA – Additions, 12 Deletions, 11
Total Additions, 61 Deletions, 27
FTSE calculates and manages the FTSE Global Equity Index series, which includes world-recognised indexes ranging from the FTSE All-World Index, the FTSE4Good series and the FTSEurofirst Index series, as well as domestic indexes such as the prestigious FTSE 100.
FTSE4Good is a series of real-time indices designed to reflect the performance of socially responsible equities. The series, created and managed by global index provider FTSE Group, covers five markets: UK, Europe, Japan, US and Global. Four tradable and five benchmark indices make up the FTSE4Good index series. A committee of independent practitioners in socially responsible investment, (SRI) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) review the indices to ensure that they are an accurate reflection of current CSR best practice.
FTSE Group contributes income including licence fees for FTSE4Good to UNICEF, the global charity.
