Last Friday we spoke about Brazil based equity ETFs, and one of the plays that falls within this space is an infrastructure based ETF that invests in Brazilian based companies, BRXX (EGShares Brazil Infrastructure, Expense Ratio 0.85%).
There are actually seven listed ETFs in the U.S. at the moment, dedicated to exposure to the Infrastructure space. The largest fund in the sub-category in terms of assets under management is IGF (iShares Global Infrastructure, Expense Ratio 0.48%), which has been around since late 2007 and has attracted an impressive $644 million up to this point.
The fund tracks a global benchmark, and has considerable exposure to continents and countries other than the United States, including a 31.53% slice allocated to Europe, 9.05% to Canada, 7.72% to Australia, 5.28% to Developed Asia, 4.78% to Latin America, 3.48% to Japan, and 1.97% invested in Emerging Asia (the remaining 30.74% resides with U.S. based companies).
Industries that are typically associated with “Infrastructure” are Utilities, Industrials, Basic Materials, Telecommunications, and even at times Financials, Consumer Services, and Oil & Gas depending on the particular fund focus and methodology.
Other funds that have gained a presence in this space outside of BRXX and IGF include EMIF (iShares S&P Emerging Markets Infrastructure, Expense Ratio 0.75%), PXR (PowerShares Emerging Markets Infrastructure Portfolio, Expense Ratio 0.75%), and GII (SPDR FTSE/Macquarie Global Infrastructure 100, Expense Ratio 0.59%), all of which have attracted anywhere from $59 million to $134 million in assets under management individually up to this point in time.