London and Frankfurt
Lyxor establishes its position as Europe’s cheapest ETF provider
Lyxor is buffing up its cheap ETF offering, adding another two funds to its canvas of cheapest-in-Europe ETFs.
The two new listings, one of which is in London the other in Frankfurt, will charge a mere 12 basis points, making them the cheapest of their kind in Europe and 8 bp cheaper than the second cheapest, which are provided by Amundi.
LCAL will track the MSCI EM Asia Index. It appears to be targeted at the iShares product of the same name (CEMA), which also tracks the same index. The iShares product charges 65 basis points.
LCUE will track the popular MSCI Emerging Markets index, which has more than 10b euros benchmarked against it in European ETFs alone.
US
BlackRock widens infrastructure ETF offering
BlackRock is listing an infrastructure ETF that tracks companies that profit from infrastructure spending. The iShares US Infrastructure ETF (IFRA) will track the NYSE FactSet US Infrastructure Index.
The index divides infrastructure companies into two types: (i) enablers, and (ii) owners/operators. Each group gets 50% of the index.
Enablers are “potential beneficiaries of infrastructure investment,” the prospectus says. And will mostly be companies in construction and engineering services, machineries and materials. Owners and operators will mostly be companies in energy transportation and storage, railroad transportation, and utilities, it says.
To qualify as sufficiently American, companies must derive at least half of their revenue from the US. Companies of any size can qualify.
iShares already offers an infrastructure ETF, the $2bn iShares Global Infrastructure ETF (IGF).
Actively managed tactical ETF of ETFs from Little Harbor Advisers
Massachusetts-based Little Harbor Advisers has signed on ETF Series Solutions’ help to list a new actively managed ETF of ETFs.
The LHA Market State Tactical US Equity ETF (MSUS) will invest in US equities or equity ETFs while using futures contracts to hedge or create leverage, the prospectus says.
Equity ETFs will be examined daily by LHA and chosen “based on an evaluation of the strategy, holdings, performance, and expense of such Underlying ETFs,” it says. MSUS can choose any kind of equity ETF – including other actively managed ones and VIX ETFs.
Depending on the day, the fund can have a net exposure to the US equity market of as little as 0% or as much as 160%, the prospectus says.