VanEck offered a new take on investing in the digital assets space this week, with the listing of the VanEck Vectors Digital Assets Equity UCITS ETF on the LSE which gives investors diversified access to companies operating in the crypto and blockchain industries rather than actual cryptocurrencies. LGIM debuted a Global Thematic fund aimed at giving UK investors access to multiple investment themes such as technology and energy. Elsewhere, iShares turned its eye to Germany, launching three new ETFs on Xetra and Borse Frankfurt providing investors with access to the most important benchmarks of the German equity market. In the US, Schwab Asset Management listed the Schwab International Dividend Equity ETF on the NYSE Arca seeking to track the Dow Jones international Dividend 100 Index. Finally, Van Harbor Capital Advisors entered the ETF market this week, announcing the launch of the Harbor Scientific Alpha High-Yield ETF and the Harbor Scientific Alpha Income ETF in the autumn.  

Ivan Gilmore (pictured), Head of Securities Trading, London Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) writes that stock exchanges have shown resilience through mixed times and looks forward to a golden age of ETFs that lies ahead…

Sustainability and ESG investing dominated ETF launches this week. Invesco expanded its thematic environmental suite by listing the Invesco MSCI Green Building ETF focusing on the entire green building ecosystem, and BlackRock debuted two Paris Aligned iShares UCITS ETFS designed to capture opportunities arising from the transition to a lower carbon economy. Amundi also added fixed income exposure to its Climate Paris Aligned ETF range with the Amundi iCPR Euro Corp Climate Paris Aligned PAB – UCITS ETF DR. Digital assets also featured again this week with WisdomTree debuting the WisdomTree Ethereum ETP (ETHW) on Borse Xetra and Six, a low priced physically-backed ether ETP. Elsewhere investors turned their attention to Asia as Qontigo licensed the EURO STOXX 50 Index to KBSTAR ETF to serve as underlying for an ETF listed on the Korea exchange. Finally, FinEx launched the Fallen Angels ETF, allowing investors to capture risk premium in USD bonds that have recently been downgraded from investment grade to high yield while belonging to the relatively attractive BB+ to BB- rating segment.

Ethereum was a key focus of ETF launches this week, with the CI Galaxy Ethereum fund now trading on TSX allowing investors to invest directly in ether using the Bloomberg Galaxy Ethereum Index, and Coinshares teaming with 3iQ to launch the 3iQ CoinShares Ether ETF, providing exposure to the daily price movements of the USD price of ether. ESG investing remains popular, with UBS listing the UBS ETF (LU) Bloomberg Barclays MSCI Euro Area Liquid Corporates Sustainable UCITS ETF (EUR) A-acc giving investors access to the performance of euro-denominated, fixed-rate corporate bonds from the eurozone with an improved ESG profile. Elsewhere, Russian ETF provider FinEx launched the FinEx Developed Markets ex-USA UCITS fund tracking the Solactive GBS Developed Markets ex United States 200 USD Index, and Lyxor listed its first ETF on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the Lyxor Robotics & AI UCITS ETF. Finally, in a nod to a post-Covid economic recovery as lockdowns ease, AdvisorShares listed two ETFs with dedicated exposure to the hotel and restaurant and food service industry, the AdvisorShares Hotel ETF (BEDZ) and the AdvisorShares Restaurant ETF (EATZ).

Venture capital investment manager Deepbridge Capital has seen a record year of Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fundraising, with GBP29.4 million deployed across 37 growth companies. This represents an increase from 2019/20 and 2018/19 in which GBP21 million and GBP28 million were deployed respectively. Deepbridge manages the Deepbridge Technology Growth EIS and the Deepbridge Life Sciences EIS. 

Digital asset-focused ETFs stole the show again this week, with CoinShares launching the CoinShares Physical XRP (XRPL) providing investors with passive exposure to XRP, the native token unit on the Ripple network. The first WisdomTree Bitcoin ETN is now trading on Xetra, tracking the performance of bitcoin, and Horizons ETFs debuted the BetaPro Bitcoin ETF (HBIT) and the BetaPro Inverse Bitcoin ETF (BITI) on TSX, providing long and inverse exposure to the Horizons Bitcoin Front Month Rolling Futures Index. ETC Group also listed the first Litecoin ETP on Xetra, giving investors access to the performance of Litecoin without having to set up crypto wallets. Elsewhere, several industry-specific ETFs were listed this week, with HANetf debuting a new UCITS ETF tracking the performance of global stocks deriving revenue from online retail. Global X launched the Clean Water Industry ETF providing investors with access to companies active in clean water provision, and TD Asset Management launched a new ETF giving investors exposure to the global healthcare market. Lastly, sustainability remained a key theme of the week, with Evolve filing a preliminary prospectus for the world’s first ETFs to bring carbon neutrality to traditional indices, and Global Palladium Fund listing GBP share classes for physically-backed metal ETCs on the LSE giving investors exposure to metals with a key role in the transition to a net zero carbon economy. 

The Baronsmead Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), managed by Gresham House, have successfully raised GBP65 million this year. The fundraising round, which closed in March, was the largest VCT raise to date and the second largest across all VCTs in the 2020/21 tax year.

Moonfare is launching the Moonfare Growth Equity Portfolio, a new portfolio of technology funds that gives individual investors access to the most exciting strategies in private equity.

BlackRock’s leadership and strategists have recently commented that indexed products are likely to see a period of accelerated growth across wealth portfolios. 

Pacific Asset Management (PAM) has expanded its portfolio service with the launch of five additional multi-asset model portfolios developed exclusively with global asset manager, BlackRock.