Barclays Global Investors has launched the iShares S&P World ex-U.S.
Barclays Global Investors has launched the iShares S&P World ex-U.S. Property Index Fund on the New York Stock Exchange, its first international real estate investment trust iShares exchange-traded fund to complement the seven US real estate iShares ETFs. The new iShares ETF has an annual expense ratio of 0.48 per cent.
BGI is the largest institutional Reit manager in the US and extends investment opportunities to individuals and financial advisors through its range of iShares real estate ETFs, which offers investors broad and specific sub-sector exposure.
‘The iShares S&P World ex-U.S. Property Index Fund meets several important needs of investors – accessing a market with a cost-effective, tradable investment vehicle and diversification beyond what US real estate can provide,’ says Noel Archard, head of US iShares product development.
‘Many US investors have trouble investing in the non-US real estate market due to high costs, lack of liquidity and ways to access it. As more Reit and Reit-like structures are created outside the US, BGI expects more individual investors and financial advisors to consider international real estate as an investment.’
BGI introduced 17 new iShares funds and attracted USD22bn of the net USD32bn invested in US-listed ETFs in the first half of this year. Barclays Global Investors, majority-owned by UK-based Barclays Bank, is one of the world’s largest managers of structured investment strategies such as risk-controlled active strategies and indexing, and has launched more than 190 ETFs globally. The firm managed assets totalling more than USD2trn at the end of June.
