JP Morgan Asset Management has launched the Global Equity Premium Income UCITS ETF, named JEPG, an actively-managed strategy aiming to offer investors an annualised income of 7-9%, to be paid monthly.
The fund was listed today (6 December) on the London Stock Exchange as well as Borsa Italiana, and will go on Deutsche Börse Xetra and SIX this month.
See also: Interview with Omar Negyal, JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust
Piera Elisa Grassi, who has spent the past 19 years at JP Morgan, and Nicolas Farserotu, who holds eight years of experience with JP Morgan and over a decade in the industry, will allocate small overweights and underweights to various holdings, relative to an index. The managers’ aim is to create a lower-beta, higher quality portfolio that is well diversified in terms of region and sector.
Portfolio managers Hamilton Reiner, Judy Jansen and Matthew Bensen will then sell index options, namely the S&P 500 and the MSCI EAFE, against the fund’s long-only portfolio, using the premiums to create income.
Travis Spence, head of ETF distribution in EMEA, said: “Investors continue to seek high levels of income, but they also want exposure to stock markets with less volatility.
“We have seen the rapid growth of our option overlay equity strategies in the past couple of years, and we are delighted to be bringing a global premium income version of our market-leading US-domiciled Equity Premium Income strategy to the UCITS ETF market.”
Spence said the fund will be a conservative equity option with low volatility, for investors who “have a negative macro view but still want some equity exposure, JEPG offers conservative exposure”. The fund will offer consistent income from monthly payouts and claims it can be an “alternative income source to bonds”.
In October, JP Morgan launched an active global bond ETF operating across 25 local currency markets.
