The Thomson Reuters Infrastructure Indices, due for release mid-March 2015, will be based on Thomson Reuters Business Classification (TRBC), Thomson Reuters sector and industry classification of every listed company in 130 countries. TRBC has five levels of classification enabling a more accurate and granular selection of companies.

The Thomson Reuters Infrastructure Indices will include global companies involved in utilities, transport infrastructure, energy infrastructure and telecommunications infrastructure, and contain approximately 300 companies from developed and emerging countries. In addition to a global index, Thomson Reuters will also publish a global developed infrastructure, a global emerging infrastructure, and a "balanced" infrastructure index which limits the weight of the utilities sector to 50% in the initial mid-March launch. Sub-indices and additional currency variants will follow in April to bring the total number of indices in the series to approximately 100.

The series is rules-based and transparent and was developed in consultation with infrastructure fund managers with special care given to the use of a systematic rather than research based approach to identify companies considered part of the Infrastructure sector. The administration of the indices will follow the Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for financial benchmarks.

"We are delighted to be launching an index series which provides a rules-based performance measurement solution for investors in this increasingly popular, but sometimes hard to define asset class," said Stephan Flagel, head of Indices at Thomson Reuters. "The index will be included in our global equity index package or as a stand-alone product, under our "Simple" fee framework". The index allows us to more accurately and transparently identify companies which generate the majority of their revenues from infrastructure activities."

Flagel further explained: "Our TRBC classification system is supported by a dedicated team of 30 analysts, speaking over 20 local languages who classify approximately 65,000 companies globally. TRBC's additional 5th level of classification detail allows us to be very specific in the identification of companies for the index. For example, fund managers feel that marine ports should be included in the index, but not port warehousing service companies; unlike other classifications, TRBC differentiates these two."

The Thomson Reuters Infrastructure Indices will be available at no additional charge through Thomson Reuters Eikon. They will also be available via FTP and other major market data vendors through data subscriptions and licensing. For more information about Thomson Reuters Eikon, go to http://thomsonreuterseikon.com/.