STOXX has launched the STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend 30 Index and licensed it to One AM, a Thai asset manager.
The index allows market participants to take advantage of investing in ASEAN companies with high dividend payouts. ASEAN countries form one of the fastest growing region in the world.
“ASEAN offers a positive mix of high growth rates, a young population and growing trade and investment,” says Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Limited. “Our index offers a unique tool to those looking to benefit from a dividend strategy based on companies in this region. Having One AM license this new index also marks an important step for STOXX in our Asian expansion path.”
Win Udomrachtavanich, chief executive officer, One Asset Management Limited, said: “The STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend 30 Index provides exposure to ASEAN at an opportune time, when the region is transforming into a single market and production base through the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). This regional economic integration will lead ASEAN to become a highly competitive economic region that is fully integrated into the global economy.”
Udomrachtavanich says: “The ASEAN equity market has both attractive valuations and is evolving from a growth play to a yield play. The key ASEAN countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – have high gross annual dividend yields, of around 4.5%. In addition, at the macro level, ASEAN has strong fundamentals: low inflation, high growth of domestic consumption and government spending in infrastructure development.”
The STOXX ASEAN Select Dividend 30 Index is derived from the STOXX Asia Total Market Index (TMI). The STOXX Asia TMI is filtered by countries to select Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. All stocks from these six countries are ranked by their 12-month historical dividend yield. The top 30 companies are selected with a maximum of seven companies per country (five for Thailand) but no minimum requirement.
The index excludes companies whose three-month average daily traded volume (ADTV) is less than 2 million US dollars, whose payout ratios are higher than 80%, whose foreign investment capacity is below 4% and those that are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). In order to retain turnover, a 20-40 buffer rule is applied when reviewing the index.
Components are weighted equally. The index is reviewed quarterly and Thailand is subject to a 15% cap. The indices are calculated in price, net and gross return versions for euro and US dollars.
