Germany
Bulgarian issuer brings in East Europe
German investors wanting access to East European indexes now have it slightly easier thanks to a raft of cross-listings from Expat Asset Management, a Bulgarian ETF issuer. (The first and only Bulgarian issuer we have encountered). The products being cross-listed offer direct access to indexes like PX, the major Czech index, BET-BK, the Romanian index, MBI10, the Macedonian index, and plenty of others.
They are:
East European companies may sound like duds but they’ve performed remarkably the past couple of years. The MBI10, the Macedonian index, for example, has delivered a 33% 1-year return.
US
iShares updates muni bond ETF for 2024
iShares is updating its new municipal bond ETF suite with a new listing that tracks municipal debts that mature in 2024. The iShares TR iBonds Dec 2024 Term Muni Bond ETF (IBMM) will track an index that measures the performance of investment-grade, non-callable US municipal bonds maturing in 2024.
Municipal bonds are issued by local US governments when raising money to pay for things like bridges and roads. They can be attractive because any interest gained on them is exempt from federal income tax, unlike the interest earned on T bills or savings bonds. (So long as investors reside in the same municipality as the issuer i.e. Californian muni bond investors must live in California to get the tax exemptions).