COST Costco Wholesale Corporation

By Dieter Holger

S&P Global Inc. said Wednesday that it kicked out big-name companies and added others to its sustainable version of its bellwether S&P 500 index, a move that will impact a growing swath of investments tied to the benchmark.

Following this year's rebalance of the S&P 500 ESG Index, the New York-based ratings agency firm now excludes Equifax Inc. and ViacomCBS Inc. for landing in the bottom quarter of environmental, social and governance scores among S&P 500 members. It also kicked out Twitter since it had a low score under the United Nations Global Compact.

S&P said it replaced Walmart Inc. with Costco Wholesale Corp. because its ESG score fell below its industry peers.

In response to S&P's decision, a Walmart spokesperson said the company hasn't "been engaged in a discussion or exchanged information with anyone from S&P regarding the S&P 500 ESG Index. ESG rating systems are evolving and current methodologies are inconsistent across rating organizations."

"We stand by our ESG work which has been recognized by others," the spokesperson added.

Twitter declined to comment. Equifax and ViacomCBS didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Other well-known companies that S&P excluded were Clorox Co., Ford Motor Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., but it said these were actually eligible based on their ESG performance and were removed at the firm's discretion.

Companies S&P added to the index include American Airlines Group., Royal Caribbean Cruises and DTE Energy Co.

After screening out companies involved in tobacco or controversial weapons or with a low United Nations Global Compact score, the S&P 500 ESG Index aims to hold as many companies with high ESG scores by targeting 75% of the parent benchmark market cap by specific industry groups.

S&P said the index has seen higher performance than the parent S&P 500 year-to-date, returning 2.68% above the traditional index in the last year.

As of the 2020 rebalance, 311 members of the S&P 500 made it in the index and 56 were excluded, while another 138 were eligible but not selected.

Meeting sustainability standards has become increasingly important for companies as a growing wave of investments are tied to ESG performance. S&P has licensed the S&P 500 ESG Index for funds, including the Xtrackers S&P 500 ESG ETF, which now holds more than $100 million in assets.

Invesco Ltd. also has exchange-traded funds tracking the index: the Invesco S&P 500 ESG Index ETF listed in Canada and the Invesco S&P 500 ESG UCITS ETF listed in Europe.

In January, S&P and BlackRock Inc., the world's largest money manager with close to $7 trillion in assets, agreed to create ESG versions of S&P's flagship indexes to launch new sustainable funds.

BlackRock forecasts that sustainable investments in exchange-traded and index funds will soar to $1.2 trillion by 2030. It said there is around $220 billion in such funds currently.

Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com; @dieterholger

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2020 15:02 ET (19:02 GMT)

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