BetaShares and Legg Mason launch emerging market ETF
BetaShares and Legg Mason have launched their fourth active exchange trade fund (ETF), the BetaShares Legg Mason Emerging Markets Fund (EMMG) which will provide investors with access to emerging market equities.
The new fund would be managed by Legg Mason affiliate, Martin Currie, a high-conviction manager that managed the unlisted Australian managed fund version of the emerging markets strategy on which EMMG was based.
Legg Mason managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Andy Sowerby, said that the expectation was that emerging markets would continue to dominate world economic production and would lead future global economic expansion. These economies would also be at the forefront of the global technology revolution thanks to a growing number of tech companies and their young and tech-savvy populations.
“The faster growth in emerging markets is underpinned by strong secular trends such as a fast-growing middle class, urbanisation, digitisation and social reform. Our new active ETF (EMMG) has been designed to invest in those companies that are capitalising on these trends,” Sowerby said.
Commenting on the launch of the new fund, BetaShares’ chief executive, Alex Vynokur, added that Australian investors continued to seek new opportunities to diversify the equities allocation of their portfolios beyond the highly concentrated domestic sharemarket.
Recommended for you
Some 42 per cent of CEOs say they are actively reinventing their business to stay relevant in the next decade, with consumer services the most common choice for asset and wealth managers.
Former Ophir Asset Management chief executive, George Chirakis, has joined private equity manager Scarcity Partners, while the asset manager has appointed a replacement from Macquarie.
Australian Unity has appointed a fund manager for its Healthcare Property Trust, joining from Centuria Healthcare, as it restructures the product with a series of senior appointments.
Financial advisers nervous about the liquidity of private markets funds for their retail clients are the target of fund managers launching semi-liquid products which offer greater flexibility and redemptions.