Solactive has launched the Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index used as the basis for the L&G Future World Gender in Leadership UK Index Fund (GIRL).
Described as the first gender-oriented fund to exclusively focus on UK-listed companies, the launch is the result of collaboration between Solactive and Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which combines LGIM’s proprietary scoring system – the L&G Gender Diversity Score – with Solactive’s expertise in the development of thematic indices.
Solactive writes that with this new launch, it further expands its range of gender-based indices by exclusively covering the UK equity market for the first time.
Using the Solactive GBS United Kingdom All Cap Index as the starting universe, the index strategy adopts a gender-based weighting scheme, assigning more weight to companies with a higher L&G Gender Diversity Score. This score integrates four dimensions of gender diversity.
These include the percentage of women on the board, at the executive level, at the management level, and across the workforce. Companies are expected to reach a minimum of 30 per cent representation of women on these four measures.
Timo Pfeiffer, Head of Research at Solactive, says: “We are very excited about this index launch, as this is the first time we are teaming up with LGIM. As an all cap index, the Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index can be used to track the performance of gender diversity among UK-listed companies and gain more exposure to those with better scores.”
The Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index is denominated in GBP and available in three versions: price return (PR), net total return (NTR), and gross total return (GTR). The index is composed of 349 companies, with Finance, Consumer Non-Durables, as well as Consumer Services and Energy being the most represented sectors. The gender metrics are reviewed annually in order to incorporate the most reliable and relevant inputs when calculating the L&G Gender Diversity Score.
