US funds group Alliance Bernstein has received European regulatory approval for three global active exchange-traded funds (ETFs) covering credit, equities and a disruptor theme.
The AB SICAV I – Global Corporate Bond Portfolio UCITS ETF, AB SICAV I – Global Research Advanced Equity Portfolio UCITS ETF and AB SICAV I – Global Disruptors Portfolio UCITS ETF have got the go-ahead from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
The disrupters portfolio is based on the US-listed AB Disruptors ETF (FWD) which holds 80-100 stocks identified by thematic chief investment officer Lei Qiu as companies benefiting from long-term innovation.
It has a strong bias to technology and artificial intelligence. Over 47% of assets are in the IT sector with top three holdings in US chip giants Nvidia and Broadcom, with respective weightings of 4.5% and 2.7%, followed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in which 2.4% is invested.
Our view
David Batchelor, senior analyst at QuotedData, said: “As with other US fund houses, for the flagship AB Disruptors ETF at least, the plan appears to be to launch a European version of an existing US product, which has grown to $1.5bn since launch in 2023. According to AllianceBernstein’s own data, the US fund has returned 32% versus 22.4% for the benchmark MSCI ACWI Growth index, so European investors will be hoping to benefit from similar outperformance. The total expense ratio (TER) for the US fund is 0.65% which is expensive by European standards, so I will be interested to see what the pricing is once the European fund launches.”
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