The exchange-traded fund will have a TER of 30bps, compared to 25bps from the closest alternative offered by Vanguard, which does not include EM bonds.
State Street’s offering will take between three and four weeks to come to market, Portfolio Adviser understands, while SPDR looks for a seed investor.
The firm already has one large seed investor, putting in $50m+, but a good amount of capital is required because the breadth of the index means a lot of cash is needed to buy a meaningful sample of all the bonds in it (sovereign, corporate and EM).
A source close to the launch said the charges for the SPDR Global Aggregate Bond ETF were keen given its relative complexity compared to the Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond Tracker Fund.
SPDR’s spokesperson said the firm refused to comment on market speculation.