Methodology Change | Solactive Erste DM Equity ESG Base Index | Effective Date 02/08/2024

Today, on the 29/07/2024, Solactive announces the following changes to the methodology of the following Indices (the ‘Affected Indices’):

Rationale for Methodology Change

ERSTE Asset Management updates the WHITELIST— a list of ESG-approved securities—on June 15th and December 15th of each year. If the WHITELIST (eligible universe) is modified, ERSTE Asset Management must divest from non-whitelisted index components within a one-month period. However, the index reflects these changes only during the subsequent rebalancing, resulting in a tracking error between the ERSTE Asset Management product and the index. To mitigate this tracking error arising from the divestment of non-whitelisted securities within the fund, a quarterly ESG Review will be implemented within the index’s lifecycle. This process ensures that current index components blacklisted by ERSTE Asset Management following a WHITELIST update will be removed, effective on the first day of the following quarter.

Changes to the Index Guideline

The following Methodology changes will be implemented in the following points of the Index Guideline (ordered in accordance with the numbering of the affected sections):

Section 2.1 Index Universe Requirements

From: Part/Component of the WHITELIST as determined and provided by the DATA PROVIDER. The WHITELIST contains companies of the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap USD Index screened according to several ESG criteria as detailed in section 6 – Table 1.

To: Part/Component of the WHITELIST as determined and provided by the SOURCE OF ESG SPECIFICATIONS. The WHITELIST contains companies of the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap USD Index screened according to several ESG criteria as detailed in section 6 – Table 1.

Section 3.1 Ordinary Rebalance

Addition: In addition, an extraordinary removal of an INDEX COMPONENT takes place if such INDEX COMPONENT is no longer part of WHITELIST as informed by SOURCE OF ESG SPECIFICATIONS. SOLACTIVE will carry out such removal after the close on the last CALCULATION DAY of the quarter if it is informed by the SOURCE OF ESG SPECIFICATIONS about the update to the WHITELIST at least three Calculation Days before the last CALCULATION DAY of the quarter. If such information is delivered later than that, the removal of the INDEX COMPONENT will take place on the last CALCULATION DAY of the subsequent month. In any of these cases, the weight of the INDEX COMPONENT in question will be distributed pro-rata across all other existing INDEX COMPONENTS.

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.