Schroders has listed two actively managed equity ETFs in London, offering investors exposure to European and Japanese companies with annual charges of 0.25%.
The Schroder Europe Equity Active UCITS ETF and Schroder Japan Equity Active UCITS ETF began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 9 September, following their initial listings on Xetra on 2 September. Both are accumulating funds, reinvesting income, and neither provides currency hedging.
Managed by Schroders’ Quantitative Equity Products (QEP) team, the funds seek companies combining attractive valuations with quality characteristics. Their respective benchmarks are the MSCI Europe and MSCI Japan indices, measured on a net total return basis.
The approach aims to generate additional returns while keeping differences from the benchmark controlled – these are therefore both “index plus funds”. Tom Stephens, head of ETFs at Schroders, said the funds offered “limited index relative risk, alongside the potential for incremental alpha generation across market environments”.
The additions extend a range that began with Schroders’ first two active UCITS ETFs in September 2025, followed by Custom Global Equity and US Equity products in the first half of 2026. The firm said its UCITS ETF assets stood at $3.7bn as at 7 August.
The new funds share an investment philosophy and process with Schroders’ existing equity ETFs and draw on the approach used by its QEP Global Core strategy.
Our view
David Batchelor, senior analyst at QuotedData, said: “The most interesting feature of these launches is the combination of a 0.25% annual charge and a relatively restrained approach to active management. Schroders is pitching funds that could serve as core regional holdings, with stock selection intended to improve on the market’s return without taking investors too far from its composition.
That makes the comparison with a conventional tracker particularly relevant. The managers need to earn back the additional cost through their investment decisions. Keeping charges low reduces that hurdle and leaves more of any outperformance for shareholders.
The constraint works both ways, however. Limiting deviations from the index also limits how much individual investment decisions can influence returns. Investors should therefore judge these funds on whether they deliver consistent improvements after costs over a meaningful period”.
