FTSE Group, the award-winning global index provider, today confirms that the FTSE Environmental Technology 50 Index has been licensed to one of the US’s largest public pension plans, the..
New York State Common Retirement Fund. NYSCRF will benchmark $100 million to the index as part of an allocation to clean technology. Institutional investor interest in the environmental technology sector is growing quickly in line with government plans to move to a low carbon economy.
The selection of the index comes on the heels of FTSE’s recent launch of the world’s first Environmental Markets Classification System and an expansion of the FTSE Environmental Opportunities Index Series. The FTSE ET50 is made up of the largest fifty “pure-play” environmental technology companies by market capitalization worldwide. Companies included in the index must derive at least 50% of their core business from the development and deployment of environmental technologies, including renewable & alternative energy, energy efficiency, water technology and waste & pollution control.
The largest companies in the FTSE ET50 index, as measured by market capitalization, include: Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark, First Solar Inc. of the United States, and France’s Suez Environment. United States-based companies make up about 43% of the index, which has outperformed broader equity market benchmarks over the past three and five years despite weaker global market conditions throughout late 2008 and early 2009.
Will Oulton, Director of Responsible Investment at FTSE commented, “As we see the first steps of the transition to a low carbon economy, investment in environmental technology and broader environmental markets are becoming an increasingly popular strategy. FTSE offers a comprehensive toolset with which to measure the performance of environmental markets, and we are delighted that the New York State Common Retirement Fund has selected the FTSE ET50 index as part of its green strategic investment program.” The allocation will be managed internally by NYSCRF’s in-house asset management team. NYSCRF is the third largest United States retirement plan sponsor with $109.9 billion in total assets as of May 29, 2009.
Source: ETFWorld.com – FTSE
Lascia un commento