NEW YORK and SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 11, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and Wilshire Associates Incorporated, one of the world's leading investment consulting, investment management and investment technology firms, today announced changes to the U.S. company definition for the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index.
Beginning with the September 2005 rebalance, the U.S. company definition for inclusion in the index will change to include corporations that, for business reasons, are technically based outside of the U.S. but are considered by the investment community to be headquartered in the U.S.
"The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index will now include securities of firms that legally are located outside of the U.S., but for all intents and purposes are thought of by most investors as U.S. companies," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes/Ventures. "The 32 companies that currently would be added to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 using the new definition have a full-capitalization total market value of $130 billion. Approximately 65% of that is the combined market cap of the top three, which are Tyco Intl. Ltd. (NYSE:TYC), Ace Ltd. (NYSE:ACE) and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq:MRVL)."
"As has been our practice historically, we are making adjustments that we feel are appropriate to the current investment environment," said Dennis Tito, chairman and chief executive officer of Wilshire Associates, who spearheaded the development of the index in 1972. "By including the securities of firms that have relocated outside of the U.S. or were founded in other countries but have a significant presence within our nation, we've ensured that the scope of the domestic market -- as perceived by investors -- is included in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000."
Going forward, each company included in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 -- including multinationals -- is assigned to the country of its headquarters and primary market listing, which typically also match its country of incorporation. In cases where headquarters and primary market listing don't match, such as where there is no readily accessible home-equity market or where a company is domiciled in one country solely for tax or regulatory purposes, the company will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
Factors that may be considered in the analysis, but are not limited to, include:
-- The country where the company's headquarters and management are
located.
-- The company's legal domicile.
-- The stock exchange(s) it trades on, if there is no listing in
its home country.
-- The currency in which dividends (if any) are paid, and the tax
laws affecting the treatment of those dividends.
-- The location of its operations (production assets).
Dow Jones Wilshire indexes are available on market data vendor platforms, many in real-time format, and on the Dow Jones Indexes (www.djindexes.com) and Wilshire Associates (www.wilshire.com) Web sites. History is available back to Dec. 31, 1970. Dow Jones Indexes also distributes data related to the Dow Jones Wilshire indexes to data vendors and other users. The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index is calculated and distributed by Dow Jones Indexes pursuant to an agreement between Dow Jones & Company and Wilshire Associates Incorporated.
For further information, please call Kim Shepherd, Wilshire Associates at +1-847-332-2987 or e-mail kim.shepherd@wilshire.com
or
e-mail to pr-indexes@dowjones.com or contact a member of the Dow Jones Indexes public relations group: Sybille A. Reitz, +1-212-597-5735 or Naomi Kim, +212-597-5718
Note to Editors:
About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes is a premier global provider of market indexes. Best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes also is co-owner of the Dow Jones STOXX indexes, the world's leading pan-European indexes, and provides the Dow Jones Titans family, which includes blue-chip indexes for various countries, regions and sectors. Together with Wilshire Associates, Dow Jones Indexes provides the Dow Jones Wilshire index family, which features the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and is expanding to include a complete global family of country, region, sector, cap-range and style indexes. In addition, Dow Jones Indexes offers a number of specialty indexes, a few of which include measurements of the hedge fund, commodity and credit derivative markets.
In addition to Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) (dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
About Wilshire Associates
Wilshire Associates is a leading global investment technology, investment consulting and investment management firm with four business units: Wilshire Analytics, Wilshire Funds Management, Wilshire Consulting, and Wilshire Private Markets. Wilshire Analytics develops and provides superior risk management, portfolio analysis, asset allocation and performance measurement solutions to fund managers, banks, insurers, consultants and other institutional investment organizations around the world.
The firm was founded in 1972, revolutionizing the industry by pioneering the application of investment analytics and research to investment management for the institutional marketplace. Wilshire also is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative investment analysis that uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. All other business units evolved from Wilshire's strong analytics foundation.
Wilshire developed the index now known as the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000(sm) Composite Index, the first asset/liability models for pension funds, the first U.S. equity style metrics work and many other "firsts" as the firm grew to more than 300 employees serving the investment needs of institutional and high net worth clients around the world.
Based in Santa Monica, CA, Wilshire provides services to clients in more than 20 countries representing in excess of 600 organizations with assets totaling more than US $12.5 trillion. With eight offices on four continents, Wilshire Associates and its affiliates are dedicated to providing clients with the highest quality counsel, products and services. Please visit www.wilshire.com for more information.
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