S&P Dow Jones Indices' Carillion mistake results in ETF investor losses

Should have been removed in December 2017

An indexing error by S&P Dow Jones Indices led to losses for a number of ETF investors after it failed to remove Carillion in December 2017 from one of its indices.

The S&P UK High Yield Dividend Aristocrats index should have cut Carillion in its December rebalance, however, this did not take place. The construction company issued three profit warnings since last July, with shares dropping as much as 70% in a week last summer. As a result, it should have been removed from the index, but was only cut after the firm went into administration in January - shares had fallen from 192.1p on 7 July to just 14.2p prior to the liquidation of the firm. The index has been adopted by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) who launched the £95m SPDR S&P UK Div...