State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has launched a new currency-hedged share class for the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF on Deutsche Börse Xetra.

The new share class hedges foreign currency exposure relative to the US dollar.

The new share class hedges foreign currency exposure relative to the US dollar and trades under the ticker SPFV GR.

The fund provides broad and diversified exposure to investment-grade bonds across multiple sectors and segments from both developed and emerging market issuers.

It tracks the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index (USD Hedged) using a stratified sampling approach.

The index, which covers a universe of over 23,000 investment-grade bonds issued by governments, corporates, and agencies, currently yields 2.1% and has an effective duration of 7.1 years.

Treasury securities account for over half (56.2%) of the index, followed by corporate bonds (18.5%) and mortgage-backed securities (12.5%).

In terms of credit quality, the largest allocation (40.6%) is to AAA-rated bonds, followed A-rated (29.7%), and BBB-rated bonds (14.7%).

The fund houses over $600 million in assets under management and is also available in GBP-hedged (SPFB GR), EUR-hedged (SPFE GR), and non-hedged (SYBZ GR) share classes on Xetra.

Each share class comes with an expense ratio of just 0.10%, matching the fees charged by the $3.1bn iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF (AGGG LN) and the newly launched Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF (VAGP LN) which has accumulated $600m in AUM since debuting in June.