Methodology Change | Solactive BrandFinance® Global Brands Index | Effective date 08/16/2024

Today, on 08/16/2024, Solactive announces the following changes to the methodology of the following index/Indices (the ‘Affected Index/Indices’):

Rationale for Methodology Change

Solactive BrandFinance Global Brands Index tracks the performance of a basket of stocks of companies that represent the most valuable brands globally, subject to liquidity, ESG, and quality-based filters.

Capacity increase criterion in Categories Coal,Conventional Oil & Gas, Unconventional Oil & Gas and Nuclear Power lead to unnecessary turnover due to sensitive small changes.  This can lead to companies which derive small revenue proportion from ESG screen categories and getting removed from the index due to small capacity increase.  This change removes the Capacity increase criterion from Categories Coal,Conventional Oil & Gas, Unconventional Oil & Gas and Nuclear Power.

In addition, for performing Quarterly reviews in January, July and October the Index constituents selected on last Annual Selection Day in April will be used instead of index composition on Quarterly Review Day. This will allow a provision to add back securities that were removed in prior Quarterly reviews if they meet FFMCAP, ADV and ESG criteria again.

Changes to the Index Guideline

Section 2.2 SELECTION OF THE INDEX COMPONENTS

Remove Capacity Increase criterion from below ESG screens categories.

Section 3.1 ORDINARY REBALANCE

From:

On each QUARTERLY REVIEW DAY, the INDEX ADMINISTRATOR will determine if all current INDEX COMPONENTS continue to fulfil the FREE FLOAT MARKET CAPITALIZATION, AVERAGE DAILY VALUE TRADED (both detailed in Section 2.1) and ESG requirements (detailed in Section 2.2). If an INDEX COMPONENT does not fulfil any of the aforementioned requirements, it will be removed from the INDEX on the ADJUSTMENT DAY that occurs immediately after such QUARTERLY REVIEW DAY and the INDEX will be reweighted according to the section 2.3 Weighting of the Index Components. The reweighing of the INDEX will always be conducted in October independent of the requirements specified above. All relevant data will be based on the data available as of the REVIEW DAY

To:

On each quarterly review day, the index administrator will determine if all INDEX COMPONENTS selected on the last annual SELECTION  DAY in April continue to fulfill the free float market capitalization, average daily value traded (both detailed in Section 2.1), and ESG requirements (detailed in Section 2.2). If an INDEX COMPONENT does not fulfill any of the aforementioned requirements, it will be removed from the index on the ADJUSTMENT DAY that occurs immediately after such QUARTERLY REVIEW DAY, and the index will be reweighted according to Section 2.3, Weighting of the Index Components.

If an INDEX COMPONENT selected on the last annual SELECTION  DAY in April was deleted from the index in prior quarterly reviews and now fulfills all of the aforementioned requirements on QUARTERLY REVIEW DAY, it will be added back to the index on the ADJUSTMENT DAY that occurs immediately after such QUARTERLY REVIEW DAY, and the index will be reweighted according to Section 2.3, Weighting of the Index Components. The reweighting of the index will always be conducted in October, independent of the requirements specified above. All relevant data will be based on the data available as of the REVIEW DAY.

Defined terms used in this announcement, but not defined herein, have the meaning assigned to them in the respective index guideline of the Affected Indices. The amended version of the index guideline will be available on the effective date.