VIS Essential Investments introduces VIS EFW Efficiency Index

VIS Essential Investments, an independent specialized financial boutique based in Switzerland, announces today the launch of VIS EFW Efficiency Index, tracking the performance of 150 OECD-listed companies based on their capacity to capture growth linked to Energy, Food and Water scarcity.

Efficiency in natural resources becomes an investment opportunity through a new benchmark in Energy, Food and Water

“There is a proven link between the higher growth of companies and their efficiency in dealing with Energy, Food & Water (EFW),” says Benjamin Ergas, Partner of VIS. “The use of natural resources by companies is the economic challenge of the future and, for the first time, the VIS EFW Efficiency Index measures their efficiency and transforms it into an investment opportunity.”

Energy, Food & Water are essential and irreplaceable resources to economic growth but they are unable to meet today’s world population’s demand, given increasing supply constraints. This growing, structural imbalance leads to increasing prices and volatility.

The index captures companies who are either producers of EFW resources, suppliers of EFW efficiency solutions or those whose business models demonstrate efficiency where extensive use of EFW is employed in their supply chains. “The two key differentiating aspects of VIS EFW Efficiency Index are the integrated treatment of all three natural resources and the consideration of threedistinct and complementary models exposed to EFW efficiency: the producers, the suppliers and the consumers,” explains Ergas.

As of August 31st, the VIS EFW Efficiency Index outperformed the MSCI World (since 1st January 2014) by 5,96%.

Top 10 constituents, as of August 31st:

The VIS EFW Efficiency Index is calculated by Solactive, one of the fastest growing index provider globally. Approximately USD$20 billion are invested in products linked to indices calculated by Solactive, through over 125 ETFs, as of December 31st, 2013.

Trucost, the world’s leading environmental data consultancy, provides VIS with EFW insight by identifying natural capital opportunity and dependency across companies, products and supply chains.

The VIS EFW Efficiency Index is a US$ denominated Net Total Return index. The Index was set at 100 at the start of trading on January 1st, 2014. The Index is rebalanced quarterly, on the last business day of December, March, June and September. The index methodology can be found on www.visinvestments.com/efwin...
ISIN: DE000SLA2EW5 / Bloomberg Ticker: EFWI Index