VanEck has launched a new thematic equity ETF in the US providing global exposure to companies that are poised to benefit from the growth of the robotics industry.
The ETF provides exposure to global stocks from firms poised to benefit from future developments in the theme of robotics.
The VanEck Robotics ETF (IBOT US) has been listed on Nasdaq with an expense ratio of 0.47%.
Michael Cohick, Director of Product Management at VanEck, commented: “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.
“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.”
Methodology
The fund is linked to the BlueStar Robotics Index which selects its constituents from developed market companies with market capitalizations above $500 million and average daily trading volumes greater than $1m.
The index screens for firms that derive at least 50% of their revenue from business activities related to robots and manufacturing, industrial automation systems, robotic surgical systems, additive manufacturing (3D printing), robotics or manufacturing computer-aided design, semiconductor manufacturing systems, machine vision (with at least 25% revenue from industrial or manufacturing segments), and embedded machine learning chips (with at least 25% of revenue from the industrial segment or other segments where robotics, industrial IoT, or factory automation are use cases).
Constituents are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization subject to a security weight of 5%.
As of the end of March, US-listed stocks accounted for just under half (45.2%) of the index weight with Japanese stocks making up another quarter (24.3%). The next-largest country exposures were Switzerland (7.9%) and Germany (7.2%).
The index’s sector allocation was dominated by stocks from the information technology and industrials sectors which accounted for 53.5% and 38.9% of the total weight, respectively.
Notable positions included Nvidia (7.3%), ABB (5.3%), Siemens (5.2%), Keyence (5.1%), and Denso (4.3%).