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BlackRock Launches European Equities ETF

Amisha Mehta

6 July 2015

has launched a European equities exchange-traded fund with a US dollar currency hedge.

The iShares MSCI EMU USD Hedged UCITS ETF tracks an index of around 240 large and mid-cap stocks from 10 developed European Economic and Monetary Union countries. It has a total expense ratio of 38 basis points.

The fund brings iShares' currency hedged suite in Europe to 14 products and is the ETF provider's first US dollar hedged European equities fund. The US dollar hedge lowers the impact of fluctuations in the euro on an investor’s total return, according to BlackRock.

“Europe has experienced a cyclical rebound from 2014 and equity valuations are attractive relative to those in the US. At the start of 2015, corporate earnings revisions in Europe turned positive for the first time since 2010,” said BlackRock’s head of product for iShares in EMEA, Tom Fekete.

“One of the benefits of a currency-hedged ETF is that investors don’t have to maintain an independent hedge and can separate and control their currency risk.”