Invesco has introduced a new ETF in Europe providing ultra-low-cost exposure to a core portfolio of global equities.
The Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF has been listed on London Stock Exchange in US dollars and pound sterling as well as on Deutsche Börse Xetra and Borsa Italiano in euros.
Investors may choose between share classes that offer quarterly distributions or automatically roll income up in the fund.
GBP-hedged and EUR-hedged share classes are also available on LSE and Xetra, respectively.
The fund is linked to the FTSE All-World Index which consists of more than 4,000 large and mid-cap companies across 49 developed and emerging market countries worldwide. Constituents are weighted by market cap, and the index is rebalanced on a semi-annual basis.
The launch comes amid increased popularity for global equity ETFs which have attracted $13 billion in net new assets, or 43% of all equity ETF flows in Europe, during the first five months of 2023. Invesco notes the data shows that investors are increasingly seeking out products that combine developed and emerging market countries within a single wrapper.
Gary Buxton, Head of EMEA ETFs and Indexed Strategies at Invesco, commented: “A basic investing principle is that spreading your investment around many different securities can reduce the risk compared to investing in individual stocks. Taking it a step further, diversifying across different securities throughout the world can reduce risk versus investing in a single country or region. The idea for our new ETF is to provide every investor the opportunity for a well-diversified portfolio, with one simple ETF delivering immediate exposure to the world’s equity markets at a low cost.”
Chris Mellor, Head of EMEA Equity ETF Product Management at Invesco, added: “We believe our new ETF should be suitable for investors wanting a simple, stand-alone global equity product that doesn’t require them to really do anything else after they’ve invested. Alternatively, the ETF could be just as appealing to investors wanting a core base from which they can further diversify their portfolios. They may decide to build on this base over time by adding other ETFs, for example, ones investing in bonds or in specific types of companies in which they may be interested.”
The ETF comes with an expense ratio of just 0.15% which is two basis points cheaper than the $600 million SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF (IMID LN) and five less than the $8.4bn iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (SSAC LN).
The fund’s currency-hedged share classes cost 0.20%.