S&P Launches Global Agribusiness Composite Index

Combines Equities and Commodities

Standard & Poor’s, the world’s leading index provider, announced the launch of the first index to offer exposure to both equities and commodities across the entire agribusiness industry.
The newly-launched S&P Global Agribusiness Composite Index incorporates the new S&P Global Agribusiness Index and the existing S&P GSCI Agriculture and Livestock Index, which is a subset of the S&P GSCI designed to provide liquid exposure to the agriculture and livestock commodities markets through futures contracts.
The introduction of the S&P Global Agribusiness Index offers flexibility to investors who want a pure equity exposure to this segment. It consists of 24 of the largest publicly-traded agribusiness companies from around the world with developed market listings that meet minimum market capitalization and liquidity requirements. The index is comprised of a diversified mix of Producers, Distributors & Processors, and Equipment & Materials Suppliers companies.
One-year returns, at 30 April 2008, were 40.34% for the S&P Global Agribusiness Composite Index and 54.43% for the S&P Global Agribusiness Index.