Solactive has partnered with Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) to launch the Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index. The index provides exposure to UK large-, mid- and small-cap equities from firms that score well in terms of gender diversity in the workplace.

Timo Pfeiffer, head of research at Solactive

The index has been designed as investable and is thus suitable as the underlying reference for investment products including ETFs.

The smart beta index uses the Solactive GBS United Kingdom All-Cap Index as its starting universe. It then adopts a gender-based weighting scheme, assigning more weight to companies with a higher L&G Gender Diversity Score.

This score integrates four dimensions of gender diversity. These include the percentage of women on the board, at the executive level, at the management level, and across the workforce. Companies are expected to reach a minimum of 30% representation of women on these four measures.

The gender metrics are reviewed annually in order to incorporate the most reliable and relevant inputs when calculating the L&G Gender Diversity Score.

Timo Pfeiffer, head of research at Solactive, commented, “We are very excited about this index launch, as this is the first time we are teaming up with LGIM. As an all cap index, the Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index can be used to track the performance of gender diversity among UK-listed companies and gain more exposure to those with better scores.”

With this new launch, Solactive further expands its range of gender-based indices by exclusively covering the UK equity market for the first time.

The Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index is denominated in sterling and available in three versions: price return (PR), net total return (NTR), and gross total return (GTR).

The index is composed of 349 companies, with finance, consumer non-durables, consumer services, and energy being the most represented sectors.