The funds will be available in the second quarter this year and will form part of the firm’s Global Investment Funds range, domiciled in Luxembourg.
This development follows the launch of the company’s Economic Scale Indices in 2013, in which equities are weighted according to their contribution to economic output, rather than through a traditional market capitalisation approach.
It currently offers indices for global markets, as well as US, emerging markets, Japan, Asia excluding Japan, Europe and UK equities.
The thinking behind the approach is to use alternative indices from the traditional market cap weighted offerings. In the past, smart beta products have fallen more in the realm of institutional investors. On the retail side of the spectrum, investment in smart beta has been more muted and as with many newly-developed areas of the industry this has a lot to do with a lack of understanding.
