VanEck has announced the launch of the VanEck Robotics ETF (IBOT), a thematic equity ETF offering exposure to the leading global companies that are driving and benefiting from the growth of the robotics industry. As economic environments rapidly shift, labor shortages grow, and the world trends toward deglobalisation, the need to introduce more automation and greater efficiency across a range of industries is increasing.
“Industrial robotics are experiencing the twin tailwinds of increasing demand and declining costs, and the global marketplace for these machines is expected to double in just the next five years,” says Michael Cohick, Director of Product Management at VanEck. “For investors looking to participate in this growing trend, a global approach is key, as is ensuring exposure across the main sub-sectors of the robotics industry, given the range of use cases and the pace of innovation that are emerging across so many sectors of the global economy.”
IBOT seeks to track the performance, before fees and expenses, of MarketVector Index’s BlueStar Robotics Index. The Index is designed to provide pure play exposure to the robotics space, so to be eligible for inclusion, companies must generate at least 50 per cent of their revenues from one of the sub-themes identified by VanEck and MarketVector, which include:
• Robots and manufacturing/industrial automation systems
• Robotic surgical systems
• Additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing)
• Robotics or manufacturing computer aided design
• Semiconductor manufacturing systems
• Machine vision
Additionally, companies must have a full market cap of USD500 million, and a three-month average-daily-trading volume of at least USD1 million. Companies will be cap weighted at 5 per cent and the Index also implements a fixed tier modified float-adjusted market cap weighting scheme, with robotics/manufacturing at 50 per cent weight, machine vision and robotics software at 25 per cent, and embedded chips, robotic surgical systems and semiconductor manufacturing also at 25 per cent.
“We are proud to announce the licensing of the BlueStar Robotics Index to VanEck to underlie an ETF,” says Thomas Kettner, COO of MarketVector Indexes. “Being involved in the robotics industry has proven to be a pioneering business model. The robotics market has been steadily growing since the index’s inception, transforming multiple industries. This is an exciting expansion of products linked to MarketVector’s thematic index family.”
IBOT joins a thematic equity lineup that includes VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF (ESPO), VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), and VanEck Biotech ETF (BBH).
