MSCI Plans to Exclude Non-Operating Companies from Global Investable Market Indexes

TechFlow News, August 14, according to official MSCI documents, MSCI is publicly consulting the market on a proposal to classify Non-Operating Companies as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Index (GIMI), with a deadline of September 30, 2026. Results are expected to be announced by October 16, and relevant changes will be implemented during the November 2026 index review.

The proposal adopts a two-step screening mechanism: the first step core screening requires operating assets to account for more than 50% of total assets; the second step exclusion screening is based on five financial indicators (operating asset intensity, expense intensity, cash flow, fair value intensity, capital dependence), and triggering four of them results in disqualification.

Taking the MSCI ACWI IMI Index as an example, based on May 2026 data calculations, the proposal will directly remove 3 constituent stocks, namely Strategy (US), Yellow Cake PLC (UK), Metaplanet (Japan); additionally, **Center Laboratories (Taiwan), Lydia Holding (Turkey), SharpLink (US)** 3 individual stocks are placed on the watch list. To protect index stability, existing constituents must fail the screening for two consecutive years before being removed, and buffer thresholds are set.