Abu Dhabi's Agthia joins MSCI Small Cap Emerging Markets index

Agthia, which owns the Al Ain, Bayan and Alpin water brands, is included in MSCI Small Cap Emerging Markets index. Sammy Dallal / The National

Abu Dhabi -based food and beverage company Agthia said on Wednesday it is joining Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) Small Cap Emerging Markets index from May 27.

The company made the announcement in a short bourse filing on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

The index includes small cap companies across 27 emerging markets countries. With 1,680 constituents, it covers approximately 14 per cent of the free float-adjusted market capitalisation in each country.

The small cap segment of the MSCI indexes tends to capture more local economic and sector characteristics relative to larger emerging markets capitalisation segments, according to MSCI.

Agthia employs more than 4,000 people and owns the Al Ain water, Grand Mills bakery and the Agrivita animal feed brands, among others, It plans to add other brands to further expand its portfolio.

In April, Agthia announced a five-year strategy to become the biggest food and beverage company in the region by 2025.

The food and beverage company's inclusion comes after Adnoc Distribution said this month it is joining MSCI Emerging Markets index on May 27.

The UAE's largest fuel retailer will join nine other UAE-listed companies including some of the biggest banks and property developers that are part of an index tracked by funds with billions of dollars worth of assets.

Adnoc Distribution's inclusion is expected to increase the attractiveness of its shares to potential international investors and help to further diversify the company's investor base, the company said in a statement.

The move has made Adnoc Distribution "eligible to the investable universe with an estimated weight of 0.04 per cent [in the index], which would generate inflows ... [of] around $244 million on May 27, which is the trade day for index changes implementation", Ahmed El Difrawy, managing director, head of data and index research at EFG Hermes Holding, said at the time.