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FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2005<br />

been derived. The group also notifies<br />

licensees of these changes in great detail.<br />

There are two main types of changes:<br />

ongoing and periodic. Ongoing changes are<br />

typically corporate actions. Throughout the<br />

quarter, researchers scan news articles for<br />

mention of index components. This<br />

“corporate actions team” monitors 50,000<br />

companies around the world and devotes a<br />

significant portion of every morning to<br />

ferreting out events affecting component<br />

companies. There aren’t any data vendors<br />

offering all the needed information, so this<br />

group shoulders the responsibility.<br />

The corporate actions team is looking for<br />

mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs,<br />

bankruptcies, delistings, stock dividends,<br />

stock splits and cash dividends.<br />

Stock splits are among the best known of<br />

corporate actions. They tend to be fairly<br />

straightforward and are virtually guaranteed<br />

to take place on their pre-announced date.<br />

Mergers and acquisitions are another story<br />

entirely. From the time a merger or takeover<br />

is announced, researchers collect every<br />

document released on the topic and<br />

regularly call the companies involved to<br />

check on the status of the deal and as many<br />

details as they can dig out. Regulatory<br />

approval must be received before the deal<br />

can go through, and some industries, such<br />

as utilities, have their own regulatory<br />

agencies that must approve the mergers.<br />

Differing rules in foreign countries regarding<br />

mergers can also complicate the monitoring.<br />

Getting this information isn’t always easy.<br />

Hostile takeovers in particular seem to bring<br />

out some people’s stonewalling instincts.<br />

CONTACT INFORMATION<br />

And many times, poor communication can<br />

be the source of difficulties. In emerging<br />

markets, information can be hard to find, and<br />

language barriers can throw up additional<br />

hurdles.<br />

At other times, the timing of a deal’s<br />

completion can be elusive. A merger might<br />

be delayed for months while approval is<br />

sought from various quarters. Once that<br />

approval is received, the merger can go<br />

through in as little as 20 minutes.<br />

In addition to hard-to-find information and<br />

complicated corporate actions, bad data<br />

from outside sources is an occasional fact of<br />

life. Information is gathered from a variety of<br />

sources and verifying each piece of data with<br />

at least two sources is the rule.<br />

Nonetheless, over the past several years the<br />

information flow has improved substantially<br />

in both quantity and quality. This change<br />

could be chalked up to the spread of English<br />

in the business world and the rise of the<br />

Internet. Several years ago, for instance, the<br />

Kuala Lumpur exchange was still using a<br />

chalkboard to record the prices of its stocks.<br />

Today it has a first-rate website that provides<br />

more information than similar sites<br />

maintained by some stock exchanges in<br />

developed markets.<br />

At Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Limited,<br />

customers are alerted to ongoing changes<br />

via daily reports that are sent out by the<br />

index support team, which is also in charge,<br />

not surprisingly, of customer service. The<br />

reports list upcoming changes to index<br />

components for the next two weeks,<br />

including ratings of how likely each corporate<br />

action is to take place.<br />

Contact Name Mr. Lars Hamich E-mail pr-indexes@dowjones.com Website www.djindexes.com<br />

marketing@stoxx.com www.stoxx.com<br />

Each corporate action or merger/acquisition<br />

is given a 30-, 50-, 75- or 100-percent<br />

probability rating.<br />

Periodic changes also are made to indexes.<br />

Most indexes are reviewed quarterly or<br />

annually, meaning new components are<br />

selected and shares outstanding are<br />

updated. Dow Jones adjusts a company’s<br />

shares immediately if it amounts to 10% or<br />

more of the market capitalization; smaller<br />

adjustments are accounted for during the<br />

next review. The reviews are implemented at<br />

the end of each calendar quarter, but the<br />

review process kicks off in the second month<br />

of the quarter.<br />

A review basically begins by taking a<br />

“snapshot” of the index components as they<br />

exist on a specified date and comparing it to<br />

the previous quarter’s snapshot to spot what<br />

has changed. Deletions, name changes and<br />

initial public offerings must be identified.<br />

The changes that index support people have<br />

researched, tracked and documented then<br />

must be incorporated into the indexes being<br />

calculated in real-time or at the end of each<br />

day. The job of implementing changes falls<br />

to the production group. Production also<br />

implements routine changes such as stock<br />

symbols, identification numbers such as<br />

ISINs and switches in primary exchange<br />

listings.<br />

Production is as close as it gets to the index<br />

fairy because it’s the main distribution hub<br />

for all indexes created and marketed by Dow<br />

Jones Indexes. The Dow Jones STOXX<br />

indexes are calculated in Zurich and<br />

distributed through the Deutsche Borse in<br />

Frankfurt.<br />

PAGE 17

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