Mergent's Dividend Achievers Index Serves as Benchmark for New Vanguard Fund
A unique dividend-growth investment tool for the dividend-focused investor
New York, NY, May 4, 2006 – Mergent, Inc., a leading provider of dividend and custom indices, today announced that Vanguard, has launched the Vanguard® Dividend Appreciation Index Fund and its exchange-traded share class, Dividend Appreciation VIPERs® (“VIG”), based on Mergent’s proprietary Dividend Achievers™ methodology.
Dividend Appreciation Index Fund will track the performance of the Dividend Achievers Select Index™, an index created exclusively for Vanguard by Mergent. A unique dividend-growth investment tool, the index is a subset of Mergent’s Broad Dividend Achievers Index™ which follows U.S.-listed companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria. The Dividend Achievers Select Index uses additional proprietary methodology to focus on approximately 200 stocks, and offers investors access to companies with consistent earnings growth and bolstered diversification across securities, sectors and investment styles.
“We are delighted that Vanguard has chosen to use Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Select Index as the basis for its new dividend-oriented ETF,” commented Jonathan Worrall, CEO of Mergent. “Vanguard has more than three decades of indexing expertise and our collaboration with Vanguard underscores our commitment to developing innovative investment solutions for the dividend-focused investor.”
"We are pleased to adopt Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Select Index for our new Dividend Appreciation Fund,” said Vanguard Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter. “We believe the construction of Mergent’s index will provide the potential for greater consistency of dividend and earnings growth over time."
Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Select Index is calculated using a modified capitalization weighting methodology and is published by the AMEX under ticker symbol “DVG”. The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation VIPERs commenced trading on the AMEX under ticker symbol “VIG”.
About Mergent’s Dividend Achievers™
A powerful tool for investors seeking a long-term portfolio of higher risk-adjusted returns, Mergent’s Dividend Achievers are companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria. The Dividend Achievers are typically companies with strong cash reserves, solid balance sheets and a proven record of consistent earnings growth. Mergent has been identifying these strong dividend-paying companies for more than 25 years.
Mergent's Dividend Achievers indices have been the basis for a number of investment products introduced since the start of 2005 and totaling almost $3 billion in assets under management. These products include four PowerShares exchange-traded funds which trade on the AMEX. Mergent and BlackRock have partnered to raise $2.5 billion with four closed end funds as well as a BlackRock open end fund with five share classes. The BlackRock Enhanced Dividend Achievers Trust (BDJ) raised almost $1 billion on its launch and was named “most innovative closed end fund of the year” by the Closed End Fund Association at their 2006 Annual Forum. In Canada, the National Bank of Canada recently launched a principal protected retail note and TD Asset Management manages institutional funds based on the Canadian and U.S. Dividend Achievers Indices.
The complete list of 2006 Dividend Achievers is available at www.dividendachievers.com. Mergent's Dividend Achievers Handbook, published quarterly by John Wiley & Sons, provides corporate information and financial data on all of the U.S. and Canadian Dividend Achievers companies, as well as a wide range of supplementary rankings.
About Mergent
Mergent, Inc., a Xinhua Finance company (TSE Mothers: 9399) is the preferred provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. Currently headquartered in Charlotte, NC and New York City, with sales offices in key North American cities, Mergent also has a strong global presence, with offices in London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney. Mergent’s databases contain detailed equity, debt and corporate action information on over 15,000 U.S. public companies, 20,000 non-U.S. public companies and all U.S. municipal bonds.
For more than a century Mergent has been providing solutions to clients in the investment management, academic, research and corporate information fields. Today, that unique experience is combined with leading-edge technology to form a robust, diverse product line that operates under Mergent’s umbrella. These include; Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Indices – the premier benchmark for long-term returns; Ford Equity Research – a leading independent investment research firm; Mergent Online – a powerful web-based research portal that provides critical business information to support daily research and analysis; Mergent Manuals, Handbooks and Investment Guides; BondSource – which offers in-depth municipal and corporate fixed-income data, as well as end-of-day evaluation pricing; EventsData – providing real-time information on corporate actions, dividend payouts, news and updates directly to clients desktops. For more information, visit our websites, www.mergent.com and www.dividendachievers.com.
Contact Samantha Dumas:
Taylor Rafferty
205 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 889-4350
mergent@taylor-rafferty.com
(212) 413-7751
Mergent Contact:
Shirley Petersen
Vice President, Index Licensing
Mergent, Inc.
60 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
About Vanguard
The Vanguard Group, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is the nation’s second-largest mutual fund firm and a leading provider of company-sponsored retirement plan services. Vanguard manages more than $980 billion in U.S. mutual fund assets, including more than $275 billion in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Vanguard offers more than 131 funds to U.S. investors and more than 40 additional funds in foreign markets.
About Xinhua Finance Limited
Xinhua Finance Limited is China’s unchallenged leader in financial information and media, and is listed on the Mothers board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (symbol: 9399) (OTC ADRs: XHFNY). Bridging China’s financial markets and the world, Xinhua Finance serves financial institutions, corporations and re-distributors through four focused and complementary service lines: Indices, Ratings, Financial News and Investor Relations. Founded in November 1999, the Company is headquartered in Shanghai with 21 news bureaus and offices in 18 locations across Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.xinhuafinance.com.
A unique dividend-growth investment tool for the dividend-focused investor
New York, NY, May 4, 2006 – Mergent, Inc., a leading provider of dividend and custom indices, today announced that Vanguard, has launched the Vanguard® Dividend Appreciation Index Fund and its exchange-traded share class, Dividend Appreciation VIPERs® (“VIG”), based on Mergent’s proprietary Dividend Achievers™ methodology.
Dividend Appreciation Index Fund will track the performance of the Dividend Achievers Select Index™, an index created exclusively for Vanguard by Mergent. A unique dividend-growth investment tool, the index is a subset of Mergent’s Broad Dividend Achievers Index™ which follows U.S.-listed companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria. The Dividend Achievers Select Index uses additional proprietary methodology to focus on approximately 200 stocks, and offers investors access to companies with consistent earnings growth and bolstered diversification across securities, sectors and investment styles.
“We are delighted that Vanguard has chosen to use Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Select Index as the basis for its new dividend-oriented ETF,” commented Jonathan Worrall, CEO of Mergent. “Vanguard has more than three decades of indexing expertise and our collaboration with Vanguard underscores our commitment to developing innovative investment solutions for the dividend-focused investor.”
"We are pleased to adopt Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Select Index for our new Dividend Appreciation Fund,” said Vanguard Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter. “We believe the construction of Mergent’s index will provide the potential for greater consistency of dividend and earnings growth over time."
Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Select Index is calculated using a modified capitalization weighting methodology and is published by the AMEX under ticker symbol “DVG”. The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation VIPERs commenced trading on the AMEX under ticker symbol “VIG”.
About Mergent’s Dividend Achievers™
A powerful tool for investors seeking a long-term portfolio of higher risk-adjusted returns, Mergent’s Dividend Achievers are companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria. The Dividend Achievers are typically companies with strong cash reserves, solid balance sheets and a proven record of consistent earnings growth. Mergent has been identifying these strong dividend-paying companies for more than 25 years.
Mergent's Dividend Achievers indices have been the basis for a number of investment products introduced since the start of 2005 and totaling almost $3 billion in assets under management. These products include four PowerShares exchange-traded funds which trade on the AMEX. Mergent and BlackRock have partnered to raise $2.5 billion with four closed end funds as well as a BlackRock open end fund with five share classes. The BlackRock Enhanced Dividend Achievers Trust (BDJ) raised almost $1 billion on its launch and was named “most innovative closed end fund of the year” by the Closed End Fund Association at their 2006 Annual Forum. In Canada, the National Bank of Canada recently launched a principal protected retail note and TD Asset Management manages institutional funds based on the Canadian and U.S. Dividend Achievers Indices.
The complete list of 2006 Dividend Achievers is available at www.dividendachievers.com. Mergent's Dividend Achievers Handbook, published quarterly by John Wiley & Sons, provides corporate information and financial data on all of the U.S. and Canadian Dividend Achievers companies, as well as a wide range of supplementary rankings.
About Mergent
Mergent, Inc., a Xinhua Finance company (TSE Mothers: 9399) is the preferred provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. Currently headquartered in Charlotte, NC and New York City, with sales offices in key North American cities, Mergent also has a strong global presence, with offices in London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney. Mergent’s databases contain detailed equity, debt and corporate action information on over 15,000 U.S. public companies, 20,000 non-U.S. public companies and all U.S. municipal bonds.
For more than a century Mergent has been providing solutions to clients in the investment management, academic, research and corporate information fields. Today, that unique experience is combined with leading-edge technology to form a robust, diverse product line that operates under Mergent’s umbrella. These include; Mergent’s Dividend Achievers Indices – the premier benchmark for long-term returns; Ford Equity Research – a leading independent investment research firm; Mergent Online – a powerful web-based research portal that provides critical business information to support daily research and analysis; Mergent Manuals, Handbooks and Investment Guides; BondSource – which offers in-depth municipal and corporate fixed-income data, as well as end-of-day evaluation pricing; EventsData – providing real-time information on corporate actions, dividend payouts, news and updates directly to clients desktops. For more information, visit our websites, www.mergent.com and www.dividendachievers.com.
Contact Samantha Dumas:
Taylor Rafferty
205 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 889-4350
mergent@taylor-rafferty.com
(212) 413-7751
Mergent Contact:
Shirley Petersen
Vice President, Index Licensing
Mergent, Inc.
60 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
About Vanguard
The Vanguard Group, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is the nation’s second-largest mutual fund firm and a leading provider of company-sponsored retirement plan services. Vanguard manages more than $980 billion in U.S. mutual fund assets, including more than $275 billion in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Vanguard offers more than 131 funds to U.S. investors and more than 40 additional funds in foreign markets.
About Xinhua Finance Limited
Xinhua Finance Limited is China’s unchallenged leader in financial information and media, and is listed on the Mothers board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (symbol: 9399) (OTC ADRs: XHFNY). Bridging China’s financial markets and the world, Xinhua Finance serves financial institutions, corporations and re-distributors through four focused and complementary service lines: Indices, Ratings, Financial News and Investor Relations. Founded in November 1999, the Company is headquartered in Shanghai with 21 news bureaus and offices in 18 locations across Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.xinhuafinance.com.
