Century Pacific adds to two Philippine firms on FTSE

CENTURY Pacific Food, Inc. will debut next week on the FTSE Global Equity Index Series for Asia Pacific excluding Japan, joining two other Philippines-listed conglomerates in the benchmark tracked by institutional investors worldwide.

FTSE Asia Pacific Index will include the canned food company along with Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Alliance Global Group, Inc. starting March 20, following the semi-annual review by FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Co.

Century Pacific will join the Small Cap series. In end-May 2016, the company also debuted on the MSCI Philippine Small Cap Index.

“We will continue to share our investment story as we believe that the Philippine growth story remains alive and well,” Century Pacific Chief Finance Officer Oscar A. Pobre said in a statement issued on Monday. “Even as we face a more challenging environment this year, we remain positive on our company’s long-term prospects.”

The rebalancing saw Metro Pacific graduate to the Large Cap series from the Small Cap and join the All World basket.

Alliance Global, on the other hand, fell from the Large Cap classification to the Mid Cap as a result of the semi-annual review.

FTSE Russell periodically reviews the composition of the indices “to ensure that they remain investable and representative of the markets included in the index descriptions set against the objectives of avoiding inconsequential changes and implementing updates efficiently.”

The FTSE Global Equity Index Series draws from more than 7,400 securities in 47 countries and captures 98% of the world’s investable market capitalization.

The All-World Index consists of 3,078 constituents with net capitalization of $39.83 billion.

The regional index, which covers 14 markets, has 1,453 constituents with medium-sized capitalization (60%) and large valuation (40%) totaling $8.01 billion. It has registered an annual return of 30.9% over the last five years.

FTSE Russell — a wholly owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group plc — provides indices that are monitored by asset managers, investments banks, global custodians and plan sponsors. The global index provider also collaborates with over 18 stock and derivative exchanges. —