Daily ETF Watch: iShares Debuts 5 Funds

Today BlackRock’s iShares arm launched five currency-hedged ETFs, four of which also target the minimum volatility factor. The funds, which are listed on the BATS exchange, are basically currency-hedged versions of ETFs already offered by iShares. They are as follows:

• iShares Currency Hedged MSCI ACWI Minimum Volatility ETF (HACV), which corresponds with the $2.2 billion iShares MSCI All Country World Minimum Volatility ETF (ACWV | A-62)
• iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility ETF (HEFV), which corresponds with the $3.5 billion iShares MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility ETF (EFAV | A-63)
• iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EM Minimum Volatility ETF (HEMV), which corresponds with the $2.8 billion iShares MSCI EM Minimum Volatility ETF (EEMV | B-69)
• iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Europe Minimum Volatility ETF (HEUV), which corresponds with the $57 million iShares MSCI Europe Minimum Volatility ETF (EUMV | B-73)
• iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF (HEUS), which corresponds with the $55 million iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF (IEUS | C-100)

HACV and HEFV come with expense ratios of 0.23 percent, while HEMV and HEUV both charge 0.28 percent. HEUS is the most expensive, charging 0.43 percent.

Roughly one in five ETFs that have launched so far this year are currency-hedged, and this latest rollout from iShares just perpetuates a rapidly growing trend.

MULT Becomes MAUI

The struggling AdvisorShares Sunrise Global Multi-Strategy ETF (MULT | F), which launched a little over a year ago and has only accumulated about $1 million in assets, has undergone a makeover. Now known as the AdvisorShares Market Adaptive Unconstrained Income ETF (MAUI), the fund has shifted its focus.

MAUI is still actively managed, but as MULT, it was a multi-asset fund that could invest in equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities as well as take long or short positions. Now the fund targets the full spectrum of fixed-income securities and holds long-only positions.

It’s also undergone an expense cut. MULT charged a whopping 1.89 percent, but MAUI comes with an expense ratio of 1.11 percent.

WisdomTree To Acquire Commodity Funds

WisdomTree Investments has taken a step into the commodities space with the recent announcement of an agreement to acquire two funds owned by Greenhaven LLC and Greenhaven Group LLC. WisdomTree is known mainly for its dividend-weighted equity ETFs, but it also has other types of equity funds, as well as alternatives, fixed income and currency ETFs.

Should the deal be approved by Greenhaven shareholders, WisdomTree will acquire the $247 million Greenhaven Continuous Commodity ETF (GCC | C-5) and the $1 million Greenhaven Coal ETF (TONS | F) for $11.75 million, a press release said. The deal could close by the end of this year.

GCC’s index equal weights 17 commodities and holds the contracts for the nearest six months for each one. The overall impact of this is to greatly reduce the typical weightings afforded to energy commodities and greatly increase those afforded to agricultural commodities. TONS was just launched in February and is the only ETF to target coal futures.

While GCC and TONS are the only ETFs operated by Greenhaven, WisdomTree has nearly $58 billion in assets under management and is the fifth-largest ETF issuer in the U.S. market. It’s also the only publicly traded firm to focus almost exclusively on ETFs.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].