Methodology Change | Several Wilderhill Indices | Effective Date 09/11/2022

Today, on the 26/10/2022, Solactive announces the following changes to the methodology of the following indices (the ‘Affected Indices’):

Rationale for Methodology Change

Solactive has determined that as China’s role in energy transition is becoming more important with numerous mainland listed companies being highly active in the clean energy space. It is imperative that a truly global clean energy thematic index include China A shares as part of the Indices to provide investors exposure to this segment. This is already the case with many Solactive indices.

We are also changing the rebalancing scheme to February, May, August, and November to address potential liquidity issues especially around December 31st rebalancings and reduce complexity overall.

The additional screening filter is to maintain the article 9 classification of UCITS per EU’s SFDR. By 2022-12-31, article 9 products must demonstrate that they comply with all mandatory principal adverse impacts (PAIs), and all PAIs must be considered. The current methodology of the NEX does not adequately consider two PAIs (board gender diversity and gender pay gap). The Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating is incorporating considerations around these 2 PAIs, and thus by adding this screening filter, we are able to ensure that article 9 is maintained and the sustainability credentials of the Indices will also be further enhanced.

Changes to the Index Guideline

The following Methodology changes will be implemented in the following points of the Index Guideline (ordered in accordance with the numbering of the affected sections):

2.1           INDEX UNIVERSE REQUIREMENTS

From (old version):

The INDEX UNIVERSE is comprised of all financial instruments which fulfill the below requirements

 (the “INDEX UNIVERSE REQUIREMENTS“):

To be eligible for potential Index inclusion, each financial instrument must have:

1. a primary listing in one of the countries that are part of the Developed Markets as defined by the Solactive Country Classification (see https://www.solactive.com/documents/ ), plus South Korea and Taiwan.

The determination of the INDEX UNIVERSE is fully rule-based and the SELECTION PARTY cannot make any discretionary decisions.

To (new version):

The INDEX UNIVERSE is comprised of all financial instruments which fulfill the below requirements

 (the “INDEX UNIVERSE REQUIREMENTS“):

To be eligible for potential Index inclusion, each financial instrument must have:

1. a primary listing in one of the countries that are part of the Developed Markets as defined by the Solactive Country Classification (see https://www.solactive.com/documents/ ), plus South Korea and Taiwan and China. China A-shares are eligible for inclusion provided they are available through the Stock Connect program and the Selection Party has the relevant license in place with the exchange.

The determination of the INDEX UNIVERSE is fully rule-based and the SELECTION PARTY cannot make any discretionary decisions.

2.2          SELECTION OF THE INDEX COMPONENTS

From (old version):

The INDEX ADMINISTRATOR has outsourced part of the selection of the INDEX COMPONENTS to the SELECTION PARTY. Such outsourcing has been made in accordance with the requirements of the BMR (Article 10 BMR). Any discretionary decision of the SELECTION PARTY will be made in accordance with the specifications regarding the exercise of discretion or expert judgement established by the Index Administrator.

The companies selected after completion of the above steps will be evaluated on the criteria outlined below by the INDEX ADMINISTRATOR. The evaluation is based on data provided by the Data Provider:

• Exclude companies breaching the UNGC principles (non-compliant per Sustainalytics’ global standards screening research).
• Exclude companies with Severe controversies (as per Sustainalytics’ controversy research) as well as companies with involvement in harmful business activities (as per Sustainalytics’ business involvement research).

For more details on the actual fields as well as the thresholds applied for the exclusion, please refer to the table below:

To (new version):

The INDEX ADMINISTRATOR has outsourced part of the selection of the INDEX COMPONENTS to the SELECTION PARTY. Such outsourcing has been made in accordance with the requirements of the BMR (Article 10 BMR). Any discretionary decision of the SELECTION PARTY will be made in accordance with the specifications regarding the exercise of discretion or expert judgement established by the Index Administrator.

The companies selected after completion of the above steps will be evaluated on the criteria outlined below by the INDEX ADMINISTRATOR. The evaluation is based on data provided by the Data Provider:

• Exclude companies breaching the UNGC principles (non-compliant per Sustainalytics’ global standards screening research).
• Exclude companies with Severe controversies (as per Sustainalytics’ controversy research) as well as companies with involvement in harmful business activities (as per Sustainalytics’ business involvement research).
• Exclude companies with Severe ESG Risk Rating provided by Sustainalytics and in accordance with their severe risk rating methodology.

6. DEFINITIONS

From (old version):

“REBALANCE DAY” is the last CALCULATION DAY in March, June, September and December. If that day is not a TRADING DAY the REBALANCE DAY will be the immediately following TRADING DAY.

“SELECTION DAY” is 11 CALCULATION DAYS before the REBALANCE DAY.

To (new version):

“REBALANCE DAY” is the last CALCULATION DAY in February, May, August, and November. If that day is not a TRADING DAY the REBALANCE DAY will be the immediately following TRADING DAY.

“SELECTION DAY” is 11 CALCULATION DAYS before the scheduled REBALANCE DAY, disregarding any potential change of the REBALANCE DAY.

Defined terms used in this announcement, but not defined herein, have the meaning assigned to them in the respective index guideline of the Affected Indices. The amended version of the index guideline will be available on the effective date.