Methodology Change | Solactive Australian Investment Grade Corporate Bond Select TR Index | Effective Date May 19th, 2023

Today (March 30^th, 2023) Solactive announces the following changes to the methodology of the following Index (‘Affected Index’):

Rationale for Methodology Change

Solactive has determined that in order to avoid higher transactions costs and potential tracking errors associated with this index, an explicit condition will be added to the selection criteria stating that Private Placements are to be excluded from the index.

Change to the Index Guideline

The following Methodology change will be implemented in the following point of the Index Guideline :

2.1 Selection of The Index Components

From (old version):

The “Selection Pool” comprises bonds that fulfill the following conditions:

1. Only senior corporate debt, denominated in Australian dollars (AUD).
2. Only bonds with fixed coupons are eligible.
3. The issue must be rated investment grade, i.e. average rating of Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s should be higher or equal to BBB- / Baa3. For the avoidance of doubt if only one rating is available and it is higher or equal to BBB- / Baa3, the bond is eligible for inclusion in the index.
4. Subordinated Bonds, Inflation-linked Bonds, asset-backed securities and Convertible Bonds are not eligible for inclusion.
5. Callable Bonds and Bonds with make-whole provisions where their first call date is within 3 months of the maturity date are eligible for selection. For the avoidance of doubt, if the call window is greater than 3 months, then the bonds are not eligible for selection.
6. Bonds issued in offshore jurisdictions (indicated by the ‘XS’ ISIN prefix) are excluded.
7. Minimum amount outstanding of 250 million AUD is required.
8. Time to Maturity should be of between 5.25 and 10.25 years inclusively.

To (new version):

The “Selection Pool” comprises bonds that fulfill the following conditions:

1. Only senior corporate debt, denominated in Australian dollars (AUD).
2. Only bonds with fixed coupons are eligible.
3. The issue must be rated investment grade, i.e. average rating of Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s should be higher or equal to BBB- / Baa3. For the avoidance of doubt if only one rating is available and it is higher or equal to BBB- / Baa3, the bond is eligible for inclusion in the index.
4. Subordinated Bonds, Inflation-linked Bonds, asset-backed securities and Convertible Bonds are not eligible for inclusion.
5. Callable Bonds and Bonds with make-whole provisions where their first call date is within 3 months of the maturity date are eligible for selection. For the avoidance of doubt, if the call window is greater than 3 months, then the bonds are not eligible for selection.
6. Bonds issued in offshore jurisdictions (indicated by the ‘XS’ ISIN prefix) are excluded.
7. Minimum amount outstanding of 250 million AUD is required.
8. Time to Maturity should be of between 5.25 and 10.25 years inclusively.
9. Private Placements are not eligible for inclusion in the index.

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