Emerging Global Advisors’ (EGA) EGShares Emerging Markets Consumer ETF, the first and largest emerging markets (EM) consumer exchange-traded fund, has reached its three-year milestone.
The growth of the EM consumer has been called “the biggest growth opportunity in the history of capitalism” as EM domestic spending is expected to reach USD30trn annually by 2025 and EM consumers are expected to become the dominant force in the global economy.
Investor demand has made ECON a vehicle of choice for accessing this growth and has become a long-term, strategic allocation for many equity growth portfolios.
“The sectors that benefit most from emerging market demographics trends tend to be underrepresented in conventional, broad-based emerging market benchmark indices, which are usually dominated by export sectors and banks,” says Marten Hoekstra, chief executive of EGA. “Emerging market consumer demand represents a key theme for investors and ECON is the largest and longest standing ETF to obtain that exposure.”
Since its launch in 2010, ECON has seen significant growth, amassing USD1.04bn in assets as of 30 August 2013 and outperforming the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Further demonstrating ECON’s investor appeal, the fund netted over USD367m in net new assets this year at a time when EM equity ETF assets overall have suffered more than USD11.6bn in net outflows.
