BNY Mellon Depositary Receipt (DR) indices have been selected by VelocityShares to serve as the benchmark indices for three new emerging market exchange-traded funds.
The new ETFs are the VelocityShares Emerging Markets Depositary Receipts ETF (EMDR), VelocityShares Emerging Asia Depositary Receipts ETF (ASDR), and VelocityShares Russia Select Depositary Receipts ETF (RUDR).
The ETFs track their respective BNY Mellon DR Index: BNY Mellon Emerging Market DR, BNY Mellon Emerging Asia DR, and BNY Mellon Russia Select DR.
According to VelocityShares, the ETFs are the first to offer comprehensive broad-based exposure to emerging market equities with the comfort of developed market securities regulation. The ETFs are listed on Nasdaq and exclusively hold American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs).
EMDR’s top holdings include Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor, China Mobile, Gazprom and Itau Unibanco. ASDR’s top holdings include Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor, China Mobile, CNOOC Ltd. and Hon Hai Precision Industry. RUDR’s top holdings include Gazprom, Sberbank, Magnit OJSC, Novatek and Surgeneftegaz.
“As investors look to further diversify their portfolios, there’s been increased interest in emerging market equities,” says Nick Cherney, chief investment officer and co-founder of VelocityShares. “ADRs and GDRs enable investors to access those equities under the umbrella of regulations that apply to all New York-, London- and Luxembourg-listed securities. That’s a comfort to many investors.”
“Depositary receipts offer investors seeking diversification a highly efficient and convenient mechanism to invest globally,” says Christopher M Kearns, chief executive of BNY Mellon’s depositary receipts business. “Our commitment to product innovation in the DR space can be seen by the growing number of ETFs benchmarked to the family of BNY Mellon DR Indices.”
