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VanEck to launch growth stock ETF

Aiming to fill a gap in the ETF sector, VanEck will release an international growth stock-focused exchange-traded fund.

Aiming to fill a gap in the ETF sector, VanEck will release an international growth stock-focused exchange-traded fund.

VanEck will release a new international equities exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on growth stocks not represented in other listed investment strategies.

The investment firm plans to release the VanEck MSCI International Growth ETF (ASX: GWTH) on 28 August, with VanEck Asia-Pacific chief executive Arian Neiron stating it will fill a gap in the market for listed growth ETFs.

“We undertook a comprehensive research and portfolio engineering process to work through shortcomings in global growth benchmarks. We observed that the traditional index often led to diluted growth exposure and style contamination, making it less effective for those seeking genuine growth factor returns,” Neiron said.

“GWTH will allow investors to add a dedicated growth exposure to their portfolio, for passive fees,” he added, noting the new fund would use a systematic, rules-based approach that targets outperformance.

“Importantly, the growth factor is a diversifier away from the overheld companies, with Nvidia being the only Magnificent 7 company currently included in the portfolio. Minimal overlap between GWTH, the international benchmark and factor ETFs provides further diversification benefits.”

He pointed out investors have boosted risk-adjusted returns with allocations focused on a specific sector, style, size or thematic because high-growth stocks are often underrepresented in benchmarks.

The manager indicated this was evident in the first half of 2025 when the mega-cap stocks of Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft were eclipsed by lesser-known equities, including defence intelligence company Palantir Technologies and mobile advertising platform AppLovin, which were both up more than 400 per cent in the past year.

Further it recognised access to growth stocks such as these was normally provided by active managers, with the new fund granting access to them via the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) at a much lower active management fee.

“Our objective with GWTH was to develop a smart beta strategy that captured pure growth characteristics and we believe that a disciplined approach to delivering growth exposure can overcome the style drift and capacity challenges often faced by active managers in this segment,” Neiron explained.

The launch of GWTH will expand VanEck’s total number of ETFs on the ASX to 46.

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