(15 February 2006 – US) UBS has engaged ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to calculate its new Global Infrastructure & Utilities Index series.The move is an expansion of the existing relationship between S&P and UBS whereby S&P calculates the price and total return index data for the UBS Global Property Indices.
According to S&P, the index is designed to provide the financial community with a stable and objective basis for evaluating the performance of the growing global listed Infrastructure & Utilities market.
“Investors and asset managers are increasingly looking to diversify their portfolios by investing in a variety of global asset classes,” S&P Index Services senior director Tim Eisenhauer said.
“As a result, financial firms such as UBS are turning to Standard & Poor’s for their analytical rigor, independence, experience and market coverage needed to construct and calculate indices as a basis for evaluating performance,” he said.
UBS Australasia head of Infrastructure & Utilities Craig Stafford said S&P’s Custom Indices provided a stable and objective benchmark for evaluating performance in this sector of the market.
“UBS believes the trend among asset managers to allocate funds specifically to the Infrastructure & Utilities sector would continue to be strong,” he said.