Vertex Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: VTNR), an environmental services company that recycles industrial waste streams and off-specification commercial chemical products, announced today that its common stock will be included in the Russell 3000®, Russell 2000®, and Russell Global Indexes, along with other indices, after the reconstitution of Russell Investment Group's family of US Indexes which was completed on June 30, 2014 as described on www.russell.com/indexes.
Membership in the Russell Global Index, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the appropriate large-cap, small-cap, all-cap indexes as well as the applicable style, sector and country indexes. The Russell Global Index represents the investable global equity market and its segments comprehensively. It consists of more than 10,000 securities in 47 countries and offers over 300 key subindexes. Consistent with the design of the family of Russell U.S. Equity Indexes, it is constructed using float-adjusted market capitalization weights and represents 98% of the investable global equity market. Russell produces a family of market cap-weighted U.S. equity indexes. All U.S. indexes are subsets of the Russell 3000® Index, which represents approximately 99% of the U.S. equity market. The Russell 2000 Index is a subset of the Russell 3000 Index and represents approximately 10% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000. It includes approximately 2000 small-cap companies based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership.
Benjamin Cowart, Chairman and CEO, of Vertex Energy, Inc., stated, "We are pleased with the addition of Vertex Energy, Inc. into the Russell Indexes. This addition will further enhance the visibility of the Vertex story, and we anticipate increased liquidity and broader exposure to institutional investors as a result of such addition. We believe that recent decisions, including the acquisition of Omega Holdings and a capital raise of $17.1 million, will grow our market presence and increase our long-term financial performance. We are delighted with achieving this great milestone in our history."
