VanEck Investments has continued its expansion into Europe by registering its suite of UCITS exchange-traded funds in Italy and Austria. Going forward, Italian and Austrian investors will have access to all fund information, research, investment themes, and other VanEck services.
The VanEck Vectors Morningstar US Wide Moat UCITS ETF (MOAT) tracks the performance of the most attractively priced companies deemed to have ‘economic moats’ -sustainable competitive business advantages.
“After a successful start in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and listings in London, Frankfurt and Zurich, we saw increasing interest in our UCITS ETF platform worldwide,” said Uwe Eberle, Head of International Business Development and Distribution. “We are committed to making our funds and services available to European investors, and registering our ETFs broadly allows us to respond to investors’ interests.”
VanEck’s suite of UCITS ETFs include two gold miners ETFs and a US equity ETF, both of which launched in Europe in 2015.
The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners UCITS ETF (GDX) and the VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners UCITS ETF (GDXJ) provide access to the global gold mining sector. GDX covers a comprehensive portfolio of large-, mid-, and small-capitalisation global gold mining companies and is currently the third largest gold mining ETF in Europe by assets under management (AUM). As of 21 November 2016 it has $108m in AUM and a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.53%.
GDXJ invests in micro-, small-, and medium-capitalisation mining companies, called “juniors” because they are in an exploratory or early mining phase. The fund has $51m in AUM and a TER of 0.55%.
The VanEck Vectors Morningstar US Wide Moat UCITS ETF (MOAT) tracks the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index which consists of the most attractively priced companies (lowest ratios of stock price to fair value) with sustainable competitive advantages as determined by Morningstar. The term ‘economic moat’ was coined by Warren Buffett to classify firms which have established competitive advantages (through possible avenues such as brand loyalty, high switching costs, network effects, regulatory protection or economies of scale). The ETF has AUM of $7.3m and a TER of 0.49%.
The Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index has outperformed the broader US equity market since its inception. Year to date, the index has outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 12.43%.