Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and New York, 16 June 2011: FTSE has today acquired full ownership of ICB, the global standard for sector classification, buying out Dow Jones Indexes’ 50% interest in the joint product initiative. The acquisition underlines FTSE’s commitment to developing ICB alongside a robust range of benchmark solutions and decision support tools for global investors.

ICB was established in 2005 as a joint product development initiative between FTSE Group and Dow Jones Indexes. Combining the substantial experience and expertise of two leading index providers, the leading classification system was developed for investors to use in their everyday trading and investment decisions. It is the broadest classification system available to the market, with a universe of 80,000 stocks and is consistently evolving to respond to market requirements.

Dow Jones Indexes will continue to maintain its own classification system based on the ICB going forward.

Meredith Odgers / Emily Mok, Tel: +852 2164 3333 or email: media@ftse.com

Eoin Bedford, Tel: +44 20 7866 1821 or email: media@ftse.com
FTSE New York Jill Mathers / Laurel Manning, Tel: +1 212-314-1141 or email: media@ftse.com

About FTSE Group

FTSE Group (“FTSE”) is a world-leader in the creation and management of indices. With offices in London, Beijing, Dubai, Milan, Mumbai, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Shanghai and Tokyo, FTSE works with investors in 77 countries globally. It calculates and manages a comprehensive range of equity, fixed income, real estate and investment strategy indices, on both a standard and custom basis. The company has collaborative arrangements with a number of stock exchanges, trade bodies and asset class specialists around the world.

FTSE indices are used extensively by investors world-wide for investment analysis, performance measurement, asset allocation, portfolio hedging and for creating a wide range of index tracking funds.

FTSE is an independent company jointly owned by The Financial Times and London Stock Exchange Group. www.ftse.com

"Dow Jones®," "Dow Jones Indexes," and all other index names listed above are service marks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, and have been licensed for use by CME Group Index Services LLC.