IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, today announced the launch of the Markit iBoxx Infrastructure indices spanning infrastructure corporate bonds across USD, GBP and EUR investment grade, and USD high yield.
The indices include companies in the energy, telecommunications, transportation and utilities sectors.
Infrastructure investments continue to attract increasing investor attention due to the established link with long-term economic growth. Investor interest has been further fuelled by growth in outstanding infrastructure debt of over 60% in the last five years*. The Markit iBoxx Infrastructure indices use a targeted classification system, which provides investors with a dedicated benchmark for tracking the performance of infrastructure investments that meet specific criteria. Deutsche Asset Management collaborated with Markit iBoxx on the development of the indices by providing research and market expertise on infrastructure debt.
Ibrahim Kara, director of index research at IHS Markit, said: “Our experience in building new and innovative fixed income indices equips us to extend our iBoxx coverage to infrastructure investments. The evolution of infrastructure investing has now reached the stage where it has become crucial to have access to high quality performance benchmarks that measure and track a wider investment opportunity. We are delighted to satisfy this industry demand with our latest indices.”
Jorge Rodriguez, head of Infrastructure Debt, Deutsche Asset Management, said: “Based on growing interest in the asset class, there was a need to develop a set of infrastructure debt indices which would allow investors to not only determine the role the asset class serves in a multi-asset portfolio but to also value investments and measure performance. The new Markit iBoxx infrastructure indices provide investors with additional transparency to evaluate infrastructure debt risk and return from several perspectives — namely sector, credit quality, duration, geography, and currency — which allows them to underwrite infrastructure investments globally.”
IHS Markit is a leading independent provider of fixed income and macroeconomic indices, calculating more than 17,000 indices globally. Our indices include the iBoxx bond indices, the iTraxx® and CDX® credit derivative indices, as well as the Purchasing Managers’ Index® (PMI®) series, which are used as indicators of economic activity in over 30 countries. Over $100bn in ETF assets are linked to iBoxx indices.