NEW YORK and LONDON, April 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices announced today that it has licensed the S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats® Index to State Street Global Advisors for the launch of an exchange traded fund (ETF) based upon the Index.

The S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats Index measures the performance of constituents within the S&P Pan Asia Broad Market Index (BMI) that have followed a policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least seven years.

The S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats Index is part of the S&P Dividend Aristocrats index series that measures the performance of companies around the world that have followed a managed dividend policy of consistently increasing dividends or maintaining stable dividends every year for a set number of consecutive years. The indices have both capital growth and dividend income characteristics, in contrast to other indices which focus on pure yield or pure capital appreciation. Unlike indices that focus only on high dividend yields that are typically from the Financials and Utility sectors, this series is well diversified across all sectors.

Below is a table depicting the country breakdown for the 46 companies in the S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats Index as of April 1, 2013:                       

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

The complete methodology for the S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats Index, including inclusion criteria, can be found at www.spindices.com.

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SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices