Multifactor Emerging Market ETF Debuts

John Hancock today expanded its multifactor ETFs tracking indexes developed in cooperation with Dimensional Fund Advisors with the addition of an emerging markets fund. The John Hancock Multifactor Emerging Markets ETF (JHEM) tracks an index that selects and weights its components based on market capitalization, relative price and profitability.

The fund comes with an expense ratio of 0.55% and lists on the NYSE Arca exchange.

According to the prospectus, the index is designed to capture at least the top 80% of the companies in each country based on market capitalization and the top 85% of companies across the total universe of emerging market countries.

The methodology is designed to give more weight to smaller-sized companies and those with lower valuations and higher profitability, while it reduces the weights of companies at the other end of those spectrums.

John Hancock has 13 other multifactor ETFs currently trading, with assets under management totaling $1.5 billion.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]