Markit, a leading, global financial information services company, today announced the forthcoming launch of the Markit iTraxx Ceemea, the first credit default swap (CDS) index referencing corporate debt in Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa.
The index will enable investors to gain or hedge exposure to the CEEMEA region's corporate credit risk and will include corporate issuers from multiple industry sectors. Inclusion in the index is based on the liquidity of a company's CDS and the amount of debt outstanding in the market.
Neil McPherson, Managing Director of Indices at Markit, said: "We are launching this index in response to increasing client demand for an efficient tool to hedge and gain exposure to corporate debt issued in the CEEMEA region. This is a significant addition to our already extensive Markit iTraxx family of indices."
Daily closing prices for the Markit iTraxx CEEMEA indices will be published on www.markit.com.
As previously announced, Markit will also launch the Markit CDX LatAm Corporate index, an index tracking Latin American corporate debt. Both indices are scheduled to launch in the third quarter of this year.