TACOMA, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Russell Investments has added 80 initial public offerings (IPOs) to the Russell Global Index as part of the firm’s quarterly process to systematically identify and incorporate IPOs to the global equity benchmark. Sixteen of these IPOs were added to the U.S. broad-market Russell 3000^® Index, while 64 of them were added to the Russell Global ex-US index.

Of the total, about half of the IPOs for the first quarter flowed into the Russell Emerging Markets Index.

“More successful IPOs came to market in India during the first quarter than the whole of Europe,” said Gustavo Galindo, senior research analyst at Russell Investments. “Our quarterly process to identify and add IPOs generally shows more robust activity in emerging markets for the first quarter, particularly Asia, and that’s due in large part to improving demographics and trade activities in emerging economies such as China, India and Indonesia.”

The Russell Greater China Index, for example, which covers both developed and emerging markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, accounted for 21 of the quarter’s IPO additions. While most are credited to the developed market of Hong Kong, many of those are identified with China, such as China Engine Group, China Corn Oil, China Tontine Wines Group and China Hao Ran Recycling.

India follows the United States and Greater China with eight IPOs, and in turn is followed by Korea (seven IPOs), Indonesia (five IPOs) and Brazil (four IPOs).

In contrast, the continent of Europe accounts for a total of six IPOs, including two each in France and the United Kingdom and one each in Belgium and Italy.

In terms of sector designation, the consumer discretionary sector with 21 IPOs and the financial services sector with 20 IPOs account for more than half of the IPO additions for the first quarter. Only four technology firms are among the quarter’s 80 additions.

For complete lists of IPOs for the current and previous quarters and for details on Russell’s quarterly process, go tohttp://www.russell.com/Indexes/membership/initial_public_offerings/IPOs.asp.

Inclusion in the various Russell Indexes is determined by market capitalization. Russell weights members of each index by float-adjusted market capitalization and explicitly excludes “locked-up” shares from IPO weights. As IPOs are added each quarter, Russell does not delete existing members to make room, but fully reconstitutes each index annually at the end of the second quarter.

About Russell Investments

Founded in 1936, Russell Investments is a global financial services firm that serves institutional investors, financial advisers and individuals in more than 40 countries. Please visitwww.russell.com.

Russell launched its family of indexes in 1984 to more accurately measure U.S. market segments and better track investment manager behavior for its investment management and consulting businesses. The innovative index design includes float-adjusted market capitalization, annual reconstitution, multifactor style analysis as well as objective and transparent rules.

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