NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to meet the evolving needs of the investment community, S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) has announced the launch of the S&P U.S. Spin-Off index, the S&P U.S IPO and Spin-Off index and the S&P U.S. Activist Interest index. These three new indices broaden S&P DJI's event driven index family which includes merger arbitrage indices.  

"Boards of American companies have become more active in pursuing spinoff opportunities and merger activity," says Vinit Srivastava, Senior Director of Strategy Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Historically, spin-offs, IPOs and firms targeted by activist investors have generally outperformed the broad market as they uncover value and increase efficiencies. These three new indices, in addition to our existing S&P Merger Arbitrage Index, provide investors sophisticated and transparent benchmarks that reflect how these significant events impact a company's performance."

The S&P U.S. Spin-Off index is designed to measure the performance of U.S. companies that have been spun-off from a parent company within the last four years. It is based on the S&P U.S. Broad Market Index (BMI). At each monthly rebalancing, spin-offs that are added to the U.S. BMI and have a float-adjusted market capitalization of at least $1 billion are added to the Index and remain in the Index for up to four years.

The S&P U.S. IPO and Spin-Off index calculates the performance of U.S. companies with in the S&P U.S. BMI that have had initial public offerings (IPOs) or have been spun-off from a parent company within the last five years. The spin-offs should have a float-adjusted market capitalization of at least $1 billion as of the rebalancing reference date while the IPOs are subject to the same criteria but as of the close of their first day of trading.

The S&P U.S. Activist Interest index measures the performance of U.S. domiciled companies that have been targeted by activist investors within the last 24 months. It is an equal-weighted index based on the S&P U.S. BMI. Companies subjected to an activist investor campaign as determined by SEC Form 13D filings are added to the Index, at each monthly balancing, and remain in the Index for a maximum of 24 months.

To learn more, please visit: www.spdji.com.

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SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices