Whilst many U.S. and European asset managers have pinned their long-term growth prospects in Asia on the Chinese market, is it India where the real opportunity lies?

According to a recent Cerulli report, growth in India’s funds market stands out against the wider Asia Pacific region with passive investing expected to outpace that of active mutual funds following local regulators relaxing guidelines for firms looking to offer such vehicles.

Recently Mirae Asset Global Investments (owners of Global X), said they see India as its biggest market for growth within 10 years and according to the United Nations, India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country this year.

Whilst not exactly on the forefront of everyone’s mind and little to none of the largest ETF managers having a presence there, is India being overlooked as a growth opportunity?

 

Fund Launches and Updates

 

EMEA

 

HANetf is set to close the actively-managed Saturna Sustainable ESG Equity HANzero UCITS ETF (SESG) having only raised just over $3m AUM. etfstream

 

Abrdn launches its first European ETF. The Global Real Estate Active Thematics (Great) ETF (R8TD) will invest in a portfolio of listed real estate securities, such as equities and Reits and will have a TER of 40bp. ft.com

 

Amundi to mirror €15bn Luxembourg-domiciled ETF range in Ireland as the country continues to lay claim to being the European domicile of choice for ETFs. etfstream

 

JP Morgan Asset Management has introduced a new actively managed fixed income ETF in Europe targeting bonds where proceeds directly contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive economy.

The JPMorgan ETFs (Ireland) ICAV – Green Social Sustainable Bond UCITS ETF has been listed on London Stock Exchange, on SIX Swiss Exchange, on Deutsche Börse Xetra and Borsa Italiana. etfstrategy

 

Is Morgan Stanley next launching and ETF business in Europe?

The group is looking to create a global ETF platform across asset classes and jurisdictions, Anthony Rochte, global head of ETFs at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, told the FT in an interview. etfstream

 

AMERICAS

 

State Street Global Advisors plans to merge away a $1.8bn small-cap equity ETF into a larger vehicle, and shutter three tiny ETFs, filings show.

The SPDR 600 Small Cap ETF (SLY) will be absorbed by the $5.2bn SPDR Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF (SPSM), effective June 9. ft.com

 

First Trust Advisors has announced that it has launched a new ETF, the First Trust Bloomberg Emerging Market Democracies ETF (EMDM). yahoo

 

Inverse Cramer Tracker and Long Cramer Tracker ETFs launch on CBOE (SJIM & LJIM). The funds offer inverse exposure (SJIM) and long exposure (LJIM) to the public recommendations of media personality Jim Cramer. globalnewswire

 

 

ASIA-PACIFIC

 

A new exchange-traded fund, Taiwanese fund house Capital Investment Trust that tracks an “ESG plus low carbon” index, became the most successful fundraising in the market for a year after pulling in over US$156.8 million.

The Capital Taiwan ESG Low Carbon 50 ETF was formally established on February 24  and listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. ignites

 

CLICK to listen stories from inspiring leaders. This week we speak with MJ Lytle, CEO at Tabula Investment Management.

 

Flows

 

China-headquartered CSOP Asset Manager has produced a review of the ETF market in China over 2022, noting that over the year the market size of the Hong Kong ETP market shrank amid the weak market.

However, the average daily turnover and net fund inflows both increased to a new high in nearly four years.

The net fund inflow was HKD80.5 billion in 2022 and the total number of ETPs is 172. etfexpress

 

US Active ETFs are having a strong start during the first several weeks of 2023, pulling in a total of $16.8 billion through Feb. 22.

This is a trend that is likely to continue this year, according to market analysts.

About 48% of actively managed ETFs had positive inflows compared to roughly 45% of passively managed ETFs. etf.com

 

Noteworthy

 

Passive funds will find it difficult to be classified as article nine under EU sustainability rules because of challenges with their benchmarks, according to experts. ignites

Passive investing to drive growth in India’s mutual funds industry, according to a recent report from Cerulli.

Launch of new passive equity-linked savings schemes, which are low-cost, tax-saving strategies, could propel the market over the next few years, research firm says Ignites publication. ignites

 

Additional reads

 

Expiry of Vanguard patent could spark run of copycats. 

There is already one filing to use ETF-as-a-share-class structure when exclusive rights expire in May. ft.com

 

From behind the Desk

 

Final shoutout to Alex Vynokur – Founder and CEO at BetaShares, who has gone to tremendous effort to support his fellow countrymen in Ukraine and has set up a charity.

The work Alex has doing and the time he has dedicated to this has been incredible so I would encourage you all to take a look at his work and do what you can to support a fellow ETFer:

theukraineappeal.org/