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Method of calculating for the ASPI index |
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1. Selection Criteria
Vigeo assesses and rates company performance on 6 widely accepted stakeholder themes (the Vigeo criteria).
2. Vigeo Methodology
Corporate strategy and decision-making are analysed and assessed in light of each of these criteria in order to determine the effect and impact on stakeholders. This occurs through the use of the Vigeo methodology which is a well established and widely utilised system of corporate sustainability assessment and rating.
In practice, Vigeo assesses and rates company non-financial performance for each stakeholder theme or criterion on the basis of a three step methodology which assesses a company’s commitment to:
- Leadership: the role of management in institutionalising each stakeholder criterion into company policy and strategy
- Implementation: the programmes and actions undertaken by the company to put policy and strategy into real practice for each stakeholder criterion
- Results: the degree, level and consistency of realisation of policy and strategy and stakeholder satisfaction for each stakeholder criterion supported by quantified performance data.
Following the application of the Vigeo methodology, companies are ranked and ultimately awarded a rating on each of the Vigeo criteria. Each rating is designed to be illustrative of a company’s performance on each criteria (i.e. its rating) vis-à-vis other companies in its respective industry sector (using widely accepted financial industry sector nomenclature to define the sectors).
3. ASPI Scoring System
Vigeo’s ratings for each of its criteria (five ratings on a scale from ++, +, =, - and --) translate respectively into five ASPI scores for each company (five scores on a scale from 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0).
| Vigeo Assessment | Vigeo rating | ASPI rating |
|---|
| Pioneer | ++ | 4 | | Advanced | + | 3 | | Average | = | 2 | Below average
| - | 1 | Unconcerned
| -- | 0 |
Geometrical averaging
In turn, the five ASPI® scores (on each of the five Vigeo criteria) are geometrically averaged – leading to a mean sustainability score which determines a company’s overall ranking in the ASPI® (the highest score getting the highest ranking and the lowest score getting the lowest ranking etc.). A geometric average means that any company scoring a “0” on any one of the Vigeo criteria (i.e. a company that is “unconcerned”) will also be granted a “0” as a final score, and then be excluded from the ASPI®.
Rules of decision if equality
Whenever final scores and rankings of several companies are equal, the company selected first is the one whose selection has the greatest effect in reducing the absolute industry sector gap between the ASPI Eurozone® and the benchmark financial index.
Monitoring and reviews
On-going reviews and maintenance enable to take into account scheduled or unscheduled corporate actions such as spin-offs, IPOs, changes in weights or mergers & acquisitions. The merger of two (or more) companies previously included in ASPI Eurozone® is included in the index. The ASPI Eurozone Index also undergoes quarterly reviews selecting or removing companies on the basis of their ratings and any changes thereto.
At each annual review, in September, the following process is implemented:
- A ranking is established using these scores. The top 100 Vigeo-rated companies are automatically selected for inclusion. Among the companies ranking between 100 and 140, 20 companies are selected by keeping former index constituent first and completing if necessary with the best rated companies previously not represented in the index.
- For equal rankings (same ratings), companies contributing to the sector representation closest to that of the benchmark (DJ Euro STOXXSM) are chosen first.
4. Index Calculation
Based at 1000 on 31 December 2000, the ASPI Eurozone is calculated with the formula (Laspeyre) and free float weightings of DJ STOXX indices. Free float is calculated by excluding participations of more than 5% deemed not to be available to thepublic.
At each quarterly review, a 10% (free float) weighting cap factor is however applied to the weight of individual companies exceeding that level.
5. Further information
Download the ASPI Eurozone® Factsheet (.pdf)
Download the ASPI Eurozone® Guidelines (.pdf)
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Indexes 
