Saxo Bank introduces Women in Leadership theme basket

Multi-asset investment company Saxo Bank launches its next equity theme basket focusing on women leadership.

Saxo is currently running an investor theme focusing on ESG and the percentage of women in companies’ executive team is part of the social aspect of companies. Recent research also shows that there are mostly positive impact on company performance from having a more gender diversified executive team. This research from S&P Global also show that publicly listed companies with more women in the leadership team performs better.

There are several companies that already have gender equality in their leadership team and these form the basis of Saxo’s women leadership basket.

The basket consists of 30 companies with 10 companies each from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific (developed countries). Companies with a market value below $5bn have been excluded from the list. The average percentage of women in executive leadership across the three geographical areas is 63.2% (North America), 52.9% (Europe), and 59.7% (Asia Pacific).

The 30 companies represent $1.1trn in market value with JPMorgan Chase being the largest company in the basket. There are few surprising names on the list such as the mining giant BHP Group and oil & gas exploration company Woodside Petroleum.

The median revenue growth across these 30 companies is 12.8% which is above the market average and the median ROIC/ROE is 13.6% which is slightly above the global average. So overall, good quality basket. Sell-side analysts have on average a price target that is 20% above the current price and the median 5-year total return has been 138% which is better than the MSCI World Index.

Saxo Bank has been regularly expanding its theme basket list. Recent additions include a payments theme basket and a 3D printing basket.