Ten new ETFs or ETF share classes were listed on the London Stock Exchange in October 2019, according to the exchange’s latest ETP monthly update, taking the total number of ETF listings on the exchange to 1,245, available through 1,794 different share classes. ETF providers issuing products during the month included Amundi, DWS, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Invesco, State Street Global Advisors, and UBS.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has granted preliminary exemptive relief to asset managers T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Natixis and turnkey ETF provider Blue Tractor to offer semi-transparent exchange-traded funds. The relief paves the way for the firms to issue ETFs that employ an actively managed investment approach without being subject to a daily portfolio transparency condition.
Direxion has added two pairs of funds, linked to the S&P 500 High Beta Index and Dow Jones Internet Composite, to its line-up of triple leveraged and inverse ETFs. Dave Mazza, Managing Director at Direxion, commented, “We’re very excited to offer traders leveraged exposure to these two indexes to express bullish or bearish positions.”
Invesco has lowered the fees on a pair of fixed income ETFs providing exposure to USD and EUR corporate bonds. The Invesco USD Corporate Bond UCITS ETF and Invesco Euro Corporate Bond UCITS ETF have had their expense ratios reduced by six basis points from 0.16% to 0.10%.
By Chris Mellor, Head of EMEA ETF Equity Product Management, Invesco.
The $3.5 billion of net flows year-to-date into Europe-domiciled S&P 500 ETFs shows the continued demand for the asset class, but a closer look at how investors are choosing to gain exposure to this important benchmark is perhaps more telling.
Invesco’s contingent convertible bond ETF, the Invesco AT1 Capital Bond UCITS ETF, has surpassed $500 million in assets under management. The milestone was reached on Tuesday, sixteen months after the fund’s inception on the London Stock Exchange in June last year. Jim Goldie, Head of EMEA ETF Capital Markets, Invesco, commented, “The growth of our AT1 ETF is a great example of how investors are using the wrapper to obtain exposure to segments of the fixed income market that they may not be able to access directly.”
Invesco has cross-listed the Invesco NASDAQ Biotech UCITS ETF and Invesco KWB NASDAQ Fintech UCITS ETF on Deutsche Börse Xetra. The funds provide exposure to US-listed stocks from firms operating in the high-growth sectors of biotechnology and financial technology.
Frankfurt-based index provider Solactive has partnered with Börse München to launch a new equity index providing exposure to the mid-cap segment of the German stock market. The m:access Index covers ‘Mittelstand’ companies – those with market capitalizations between €5 million and €100m – that are listed on the m:access segment of Börse München. Robert Ertl, CEO of Bayerische Börse, the operator of Börse München, commented, “With this index, Börse München is underscoring its claim to stand as the German stock exchange for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).”
Invesco has launched a currency-hedged share class for the PIMCO US Dollar Short Maturity Source UCITS ETF on London Stock Exchange. The new share class trades under the ticker MIST LN and hedges exposure between the US dollar and the share’s trading currency, pound sterling. The fund was one of the first actively managed ETFs to be listed in Europe and offers investors access to PIMCO’s global cash management expertise.
Invesco has filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting exemptive relief to build its own non-transparent active ETF model. The model, if approved, would maintain the confidentiality of a fund’s strategy while retaining many of the benefits of ETFs such as tax efficiency and intraday tradability. Dan Draper, Managing Director and Global Head of Invesco ETFs, said, “We believe that the structure of our model will provide investors with the ability to maximize the benefits of active management through a tax-efficient and liquid ETF wrapper.”