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Deals and People May 18, 2015
LSEG Launches New FTSE Russell Brand
The creation of the FTSE Russell name represents the launch of a newly combined global index brand, according to the London Stock Exchange Group.
Reported by John Manganaro
Combined elements of Russell Investments and the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) will operate under a newly established brand, FTSE Russell.
The launch of FTSE Russell is “an important milestone in the integration of FTSE and Russell Indexes,” the firm notes. The announcement follows the 2014 acquisition of the Russell Investment businesses by the London Stock Exchange Group.
The initial deal was valued at $2.7 billion and took an important turn in February 2015, when LSEG said it reached a decision to sell the investment management portion of Russell Investments, while keeping Russell’s lucrative indexing business, which has now been folded into the FTSE Russell brand.
One retirement industry expert at the time told PLANSPONSOR the shift in ownership of the Russell indexes presents a good opportunity for retirement plan fiduciaries and investors to think a little deeper about how their portfolios are built and measured. Turning to today’s news, LSEG says FTSE Russell “will now operate as one joint global index business, with a combined sales and product team serving its global customer base.”
Mark Makepeace, group director of information services for LSEG, says the firms “continue to make great progress across the business to bring together our collective capabilities to serve clients globally, offering even greater access to our broad range of multi-asset index solutions.”
FTSE Russell becomes a global index brand that provides benchmarking, analytics and data solutions for investors worldwide. FTSE Russell calculates thousands of indices that measure and benchmark markets and asset classes in more than 80 countries and 25 exchanges worldwide.