Vanguard has cross-listed the Vanguard Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF (VX5E SW) on SIX Swiss Exchange, offering another access point for investors seeking exposure to mega-cap stocks in the eurozone.
Vanguard cross-lists Euro Stoxx 50 ETF to SIX (file image)
VX5E has been listed on SIX in Swiss francs; however, the fund was initially rolled out on London Stock Exchange in pounds sterling and on Deutsche Börse in euros, both with the same ticker code.
The ETF charges a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.10%.
The underlying Euro Stoxx 50 Index covers 50 stocks from 11 eurozone countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
The index is weighted by free-float market cap, and each component’s weight is capped at 10% of the index’s total free-float market cap.
As of the end of November 2017, the index was dominated by exposure to equities listed in France (35.7%) and Germany (33.3%), with the next largest country exposures being the Netherlands (11.0%), Spain (10.2%) and Italy (4.9%).
The index is fairly well diversified at the sector level with the largest exposures being banks (15.4%), industrial goods & services (10.7%), chemicals (9.0%), personal & household goods (9.0%) and technology (7.3%) and healthcare (10.1%). It has delivered a return of approximately 10.1% over the past year.
Since the ETF’s launch at the end of October 2017, assets under management have grown to €86 million, undoubtedly aided by the strength of the Vanguard brand and distribution capability in what is an extremely crowded space in the market. Indeed, there are almost fifty Euro Stoxx 50-linked ETFs!
While the ten-basis-point fee on Vanguard’s product is lower than the 0.16% charged on the giant €9.4bn iShares Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF (EUE LN), it is still double the cost of the joint-cheapest funds – the Source Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF (SX5S LN) and the HSBC Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF (H50E LN), each with a TER of just 0.05%. Their AUMs are €340 million and €140m, respectively.