The ETF will track the Barclays EM Tradable Russian Corporate Bond (EMRUS) Index, which focuses on shorter maturity liquid Eurobonds issued by Russian non-sovereign issuers.
Research conducted by the firm in December showed 44% of European institutional investors expect to increase their investment in ETFs over the next 12 months.
In addition, 72% of those surveyed anticipate increasing their exposure to high yield EM corporate bonds in the next 12 months.
Simon Luhr, managing partner and CEO, FinEx Capital Management, said: “We believe the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) has addressed many of the criticisms aimed at ETFs, for example in terms of transparency, and our Ucits offering will aim to comply with all of the recent recommendations made by it.
“Although the global ETF market has enjoyed phenomenal growth in recent years it has yet to take off in many Emerging Markets. They are a new frontier to which we can take our very strong proposition.
The EMRUS Index was launched in December 2012 but back-testing of its constituent securities on an unhedged US dollar basis shows that it delivered a total net return of 8.17% over one year to 15th February 2013.
Securities issued by domestic Russian quasi-sovereign and corporates are eligible for the Index, with a maximum of three bonds per issuer. Issuer caps and floors are applied to enhance diversification. Duration of the bonds ranges from 18 months to five years.
The ETF has been listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and is cross-listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Deborah Fuhr, Partner at independent research and consultancy firm ETFGI and former global head of ETF research at BlackRock, commented: “This is far from another ‘me too’ entry into what some commentators might say is a highly competitive ETF market. FinEx has a fresh take on the ETF market with its strategy to act as a bridge, bringing Western style products to Emerging Markets while offering Western investors access to emerging economies.”
The fund’s base currency is US dollars and its total expense ratio is 50 basis points.
