Schroders Australia has launched an active exchange-traded fund (ETF) targeting outperformance of the MSCI World ex Australia ex Tobacco Index after fees, while limiting risk relative to the index.
The Schroder Global Core Fund – Active ETF is the fifth of its kind, with the manager noting it was released to provide investors access to its long-standing global enhanced index strategy and team.
“The investment landscape is ever changing and active ETFs have been a part of that. They play a vital role in democratising active management with easy access to valuable active investment capabilities,” Schroders Australia chief executive Simon Doyle noted.
The fund’s strategy, which has over 25 years of performance history, uses a mix of quantitative analysis and fundamental insights to identify investment opportunities focused on value and quality from a universe of over 15,000 companies. The final portfolio typically holds in excess of 400 global companies.
“Since the inception of the Schroder Quantity Equity Product (QEP) Global Core strategy, markets have presented a variety of opportunities and challenges. Throughout this, our primary goal has been to embed stability for portfolios through strict risk management,” Schroders QEP investment team co-head Lukas Kamblevicius revealed.
“With a strong probability of higher volatility in equity markets in 2025, we are well placed through our combined quantitative and fundamentals approach to generate modest, yet consistent, outperformance through the business cycle.”
As at end the end of April, the fund’s highest sector allocation was to information technology at 24.9 per cent, followed by financials at 17.3 per cent, healthcare at 11 per cent and industrials at 10.5 per cent.
Geographically, North America accounts for more than a quarter of the ETF’s portfolio, followed by a 14.7 per cent allocation to Continental Europe and 4.2 per cent to Japan.
The strategy has underlying assets under management of $30 billion across institutional and retail investors.
