Will October inflows surpass September?
Fund Launches and Updates
Amundi has expanded its core range with the launch of a short-duration euro government bond ETF. The Amundi Prime Euro Gov Bonds 0-1y UCITS ETF (PRAB) is listed on Xetra with a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.05%. Link
Sponsored by Quikro on the HANetf platform, the Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity UCITS ETF (DIGI), Europe’s first thematic ETF focusing on digital infrastructure and connectivity, has followed up its initial launch on the London Stock Exchange by listing on the Deutsche Boerse’s Xetra. Link
State Street Global Advisors launched two core ESG fixed income ETFs. The SPDR Bloomberg SASB Euro Corporate ESG UCITS ETF (SPPR) is listed on Xetra with a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.15%. The SPDR Bloomberg SASB US Corporate ESG UCITS ETF (SPPU) is set to list on Xetra on 26 October also with a TER of 0.15%. Link
Flows
ETF promoters in Europe experienced net inflows of EUR5.9 billion for September Lipper figures show, but assets under management in the European ETF industry (EUR870.9 billion) decreased over the month.
Equity ETFs (+EUR6.9 billion) posted the highest net inflows in the European ETF industry for September. The best-selling Lipper global classification for September was Equity US (+EUR3.6 billion), followed by Equity Global (+EUR1.3 billion) and Bond CNY (+EUR1.0 billion).
UBS ETF was the best-selling ETF promoter in Europe for September (+EUR1.4 billion), ahead of Xtrackers (+EUR1.1 billion) and iShares (+EUR1.0 billion).
The 10 best-selling funds gathered total net inflows of EUR4.5 billion for September, according to Refinitiv. The best-selling ETF for September, iShares China CNY Bond UCITS ETF USD Dist, accounted for net inflows of EUR0.8 billion. Link
Noteworthy
Haitong Asset Management has appointed global custodian HSBC as its securities services provider for what it claims is Hong Kong’s first broad-based ETF focused on ESG.
The fund, Haitong MSCI China A ESG ETF, will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and will track the MSCI China A ESG Universal index. Link
Dimensional Fund Advisors has appointed a new head of capital markets, Nicole Hunter, to develop its nascent ETF offerings. The Austin-based firm with $527 billion in assets has filed to launch three actively managed ETFs.
Actively managed ETFs are on pace for a record year of inflows, attracting almost $38 billion so far in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Link
Hong Kong Connect Opens China ETF Market to Global Investors. China’s fast-growing $157 billion market for exchange-traded funds became directly accessible to overseas investors Friday.
Four so-called “feeder” ETFs began trading in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the first batch in a project aimed at connecting the two markets.
At $40 billion, Hong Kong’s ETF market is smaller than the mainland’s even though its first fund was launched five years before China’s in 1999. ETFs in China nearly doubled in value in the first half of this year. Link
What is driving the rapid slowdown in smart beta ETF launches?
Smart Beta ETF saturation – once described as the “most significant trend in ETFs” in 2016, smart beta ETF launches have fallen off a cliff in the last two years as issuers appear to have moved on to developing other investment strategies such as ESG and thematics. Link
Asset managers have been put on notice to overhaul their “male and pale”workforces or risk losing clients after one of the world’s most influential advisers to pension funds found that diverse investment teams significantly outperform.
Willis Towers Watson, which advises on $2.6tn in assets, said its analysis of more than 2,400 individual investment teams globally found that diverse groups outperformed those with no gender or ethnic minority employees by 20 basis points a year on average.
As part of a new action plan, WTW will speak to asset managers across the world about the need to tackle the lack of women or people from different ethnic or social backgrounds in their investment teams. Link
