NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, and BusinessWeek, a leading global business media organization, have joined forces to launch the investment industry's first global innovation index. The S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index consists of 25 of the most innovative listed companies in the world as determined by The Most Innovative Companies Rankings, an annual report prepared by BusinessWeek in partnership with The Boston Consulting Group. Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek are both units of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP).

"As thematic investing gains ground, investors are beginning to identify innovation as a key global theme," says Srikant Dash, Head of Global Research and Design at Standard & Poor's. "Innovation is commonly associated with business success and the S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index will provide investors with a metric to track the share price performance of world's most innovative, publicly traded companies."

The index can include any stock trading on a major exchange in any developed market. To be eligible for the index, a stock must have a minimum float-adjusted market capitalization of $500 million and a minimum average daily value traded of $3 million. Each company's weight in the index is based on a combination of its ranking in the BusinessWeek survey and a quantitative ranking based on fundamental factors used to estimate innovation.

The Most Innovative Companies Rankings is derived from an annual innovation survey. The survey includes the 1,500 largest companies in the world, as measured by market capitalization, and is directed to the ten highest ranking executives in charge of innovation at each company. Respondents are asked general questions regarding innovation, and to name the most innovative company outside of their industry. Companies are then ranked by the number of votes they receive.

The S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index belongs to the S&P Global Thematic Indices. This series offers liquid exposure to emerging investment themes around the world. Other indices in the series are the S&P Global Alternative Energy Index, the S&P Global Clean Energy Index, the S&P Global Eco Index, the S&P Global Infrastructure Index, the S&P Global Nuclear Energy Index, the S&P Global Timber & Forestry Index, and the S&P Global Water Index.

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with $1.32 trillion invested and $4.91 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprising seven regional and country headline indices. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek is a leading global business media organization, providing unparalleled insight and analysis to a worldwide audience of business leaders. Founded in 1929 and published by the McGraw-Hill Companies, BusinessWeek magazine is the market leader, with more than 4.9 million readers each week in 140 countries. Local language editions include Chinese, Russian, and Bahasa Indonesian. Launched in 1994, BusinessWeek.com is the preeminent provider of daily, essential business news, information, and services to business decision-makers. Reaching 85% of the nation's households, BusinessWeek Weekend delivers important business, consumer, and financial news to television viewers every week.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's