The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) is excited to announce that Cirdan Capital Management, with collaboration from C8 Technologies, has launched a Certificate based on the Solactive EPIC Core Photonics Index. The Solactive EPIC Core Photonics Certificate will be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for retail and institutional investors with the ISIN Code XS2412871902 and an initial value of €1,000 per Certificate. Investment in the Certificates is targeted to be ready with brokers on or about 23 December 2021. In addition, the Index will be available on the C8 Technologies platform for Direct Indexing.
With so much of the focus on COP26 around new technologies, photonics is an important technology that will ensure a significant reduction in energy consumption because it utilises light and not electronics. Photonics will deliver more efficient manufacturing at a significantly lower cost and with a much lower impact to the environment. Photonics leads the evolution from using electrons to using photons (light) which are faster, lighter and more precise.
The Solactive EPIC Core Photonics Index is the first of its kind to represent a global cross-section of the world’s largest and most liquid public photonics manufacturing companies and includes all companies with at least 50 percent of their revenues sourced from photonics manufacturing activities. This means that for the first time, investors will be able to specifically target their investments to the photonics industry.
“Photonics is a major enabler of a cleaner environment across myriad industries,” said EPIC CEO Carlos Lee. “The future of our planet depends on creating greener solutions to traditional manufacturing processes and photonics technologies facilitate this evolution across numerous industries. We may not know what the future looks like, but we are certain that photonics technologies will take us there!”
Photonics is currently used across a wide range of applications, from medicine to manufacturing to safety to entertainment. Without photonics, it would not be possible to have laser eye surgery or stream Netflix or use a Smartphone. But photonics also has the capability to go so much further. Photonics is revolutionising the semiconductor industry by integrating light into integrated circuits that will make the next generation of computers and other devices considerably more energy efficient while delivering a massive improvement in processing capacity, data throughput and speed.
Over the next five years, the photonics industry is expected to grow by more than 13 percent annually with a total market value in excess of US$1 trillion by 2026. Over the last six years, the back-tested Solactive EPIC Core Photonics Index outperformed MSCI World by 15 percent per year with a similar level of risk (volatility).
“While the investment returns on individual photonics companies are potentially very large, it is difficult for investors to differentiate between winners and losers over time.” explained Markus Barth, CEO of Anatase Ltd, who designed the Index in collaboration with EPIC and Solactive. “EPIC’s in-depth company analysis provides a diversified global basket of companies that are all key-enablers of a greener future.”
In addition, Barth noted, “The carbon footprint of photonics companies in the Index is, on average, 70 percent lower than well-known equity market benchmarks. This means they walk the walk in their own operations as well as facilitating energy and resource efficiencies for their customers.”
Following the launch, EPIC will be actively looking at how pension funds can avail themselves of this new, greener investment. Half of the Certificate revenues will be reinvested into promoting photonics globally.