S&P Indices Announces Latin America ADR Index

NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing to expand its offerings in Latin America, S&P Indices announced today the launch of the S&P Latin America ADR Index. The Index is comprised of 25 leading Latin American companies that offer ADR programs or have global or ordinary shares listed on one of the primary U.S. exchanges. The launch of the S&P Latin America ADR Index follows S&P Indices' introduction of the S&P Latin America Infrastructure Index and the S&P MILA 40 earlier in the year.

ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) are certificates representing home market securities, and signify a U.S. dollar-denominated equity ownership in a foreign company.

"Many Latin American equity markets have high costs of trading and can be difficult to access directly," says Michael Orzano, Associate Director of Global Equity Indices at S&P Indices. "The S&P Latin America ADR Index is designed to be representative of the Latin American equity market, yet efficient to replicate."

Any company that is currently a member of the S&P Latin America BMI is eligible for inclusion in the S&P Latin America ADR Index if it has a Level II or Level III ADR program, has global shares listed with NYSE Euronext or NASDAQ QMX, or has an ordinary share listing on any of the primary U.S. exchanges.

The S&P Latin America ADR Index is constructed based on the top 25 most liquid securities based on three-month average daily value traded that meet minimum size and liquidity requirements. Constituents are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization with modifications made to enhance diversification. As of each semi-annual rebalancing, single stock and country weights are capped at 10% and 60%, respectively.

Simultaneously, S&P Indices is offering risk control versions of the S&P Latin America ADR Index that dynamically adjusts to target a 8%, 10%, 12%, 15%, or 18% level of volatility.

For the full index methodology, please visit our Web site at www.indices.standardandpoors.com.

About S&P Indices
S&P Indices, a leading brand of the McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Over $1.25 trillion is directly indexed to Standard & Poor's family of indices, which includes the S&P 500, the world's most followed stock market index, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, the S&P Global BMI, an index with approximately 11,000 constituents, the S&P GSCI, the industry's most closely watched commodities index, and the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index, the premier investable index for U.S. municipal bonds. For more information, please visit: www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

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SOURCE Standard & Poor's