The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Franklin Templeton 
Franklin Templeton has just launched its new Franklin FTSE Developed World UCITS exchange-traded fund (ETF) for European investors. The California-headquartered investment manager said that the launch is part of its plans to grow its exchange-traded funds' business in Europe in response to growing client demand. 

This offering is the first world index tracking ETF in the Franklin Templeton ETF range and brings the total number of its indexed ETFs to 21. The fund invests in large and mid-capitalisation stocks in developed markets globally, the firm said in a statement. It is passively managed and tracks the performance of the FTSE Developed Index-NR (Net Return), a market-capitalisation weighted index representing the performance of large and mid-cap companies in developed markets.

It will also list on the Deutsche Börse Xetra (XETRA) and London Stock Exchange (LSE) on 25 June, and the Borsa Italiana on 26 June 2024. It is registered in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the firm added.

The ETF will be managed by Dina Ting, head of global index portfolio management, and Lorenzo Crosato, ETF portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton, both of whom have a track record in managing ETF strategies. The ETF is a sub-fund of the Franklin Templeton ICAV, an Irish Collective Asset-Management Vehicle, incorporated under the laws of Ireland. The global ETF platform now has about $26 billion in assets under management globally, the firm added.

“With just one trade, investors can now access more than 2,000 stocks across 25 developed economies as part of a broad diversified, global portfolio. Drawing nearly $20 billion in ETF flows in 2023, developed markets account for 40 per cent of the world’s GDP and 74 per cent of global equity market capitalisation, making this strategy an attractive equity allocation for our clients,” Caroline Baron, head of ETF distribution, EMEA, Franklin Templeton, said. 

Also forming part of the firm’s plans to grow its exchange-traded funds' business in Europe, it recently launched Franklin MSCI World Catholic Principles UCITS Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), offering investors an ESG-focused global equity strategy within an ETF structure that incorporates specific Catholic values.  See more commentary here.

Invesco
Invesco is expanding its range of BulletShares UCITS ETFs with the launch of five euro denominated investment-grade corporate bond funds. These fixed-maturity products combine the benefits of investing in individual bonds, the diversification associated with a fund and the low-cost, transparency and liquidity of an ETF, the firm said in a statement.

Mirroring the firm’s existing dollar range, these new ETFs will offer investors a choice of maturity dates ranging from 2026 to 2030, with accumulating and distributing shares available for each ETF.

Each Invesco ETF aims to deliver the performance of its reference Bloomberg index, which is designed to reflect the performance of euro-denominated, investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable debt securities from corporate issuers.

For example, the Invesco BulletShares 2026 EUR Corporate Bond UCITS ETF aims to track the performance of the Bloomberg 2026 Maturity EUR Corporate Bond Screened Index, where each constituent has an effective maturity on or between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2026. Securities will also be excluded from the index if the issuer is involved with certain controversial business activities or has a severe controversary pertaining to an ESG-related issue, the firm said. 

“Fixed-maturity ETFs can help investors satisfy a variety of objectives, from matching cash flow with their future liabilities to filling a gap in the maturity profile of their existing bond portfolio. Sophisticated strategies once used only by institutions large enough to invest directly in individual bonds can now be replicated by other investors through simple BulletShares ETFs,” Gary Buxton, head of EMEA ETFs and indexed strategies at Invesco, said. “These precision tools could help pension funds match their liabilities but equally provide a simple, low-cost solution for parents needing to plan for school fees or someone saving for a house purchase.” 

Invesco’s portfolio managers will apply a sampling strategy to select a proportion of the index that represents the characteristics of the entire index. When a corporate bond held by the fund reaches maturity, the proceeds will be used to invest in short-dated government-issued debt.

Invesco has also just launched another ETF in Europe which offers investors access to the long-term growth potential of China. See more commentary here.