Emerging Global Shares has launched an exchange traded fund (ETF) that taps into India’s infrastructure sector. And according to Richard Kang, Emerging Global’s director of research, there’s tremendous opportunity for growth here.
EGShares India Infrastructure ETF (NYSEArca: INXX) tracks the free-float market-capitalization-weighted Indxx India Infrastructure Index and invests in 30 securities. The fund comes with a net expense ratio of 0.85%. [New Ways to Play India’s Boom.]
Kang was recently in India and witnessed its infrastructure troubles first-hand. “I can say clearly that India is not even where Korea was 30 years ago,” he says, pointing out that Mumbai doesn’t have a subway system or lightrail. India is also home to the largest slum in Asia; it’s home to one million people.
“How do you get all these people out of that situation and into the middle class?” Kang asks.
That’s the opportunity in India. The country has a five year plan to spend $1.025 trillion on infrastructure between 2012-2017 to build things like power plants to shipping ports to airports.
While that’s a start, Kang says, it’s not nearly enough for India’s massive population. Much of the rest of the money needed to bring India’s infrastructure up to speed will likely come from private investments and sovereign wealth funds.
India still has a lot going to for it: it’s a well-educated, English-speaking population and the economy is driven by domestic demand, which has helped insulate it from many of the troubles of the last year.
“They weathered the storms well. That can turn into greater investment into infrastructure,” says Kang. [Sector Specific ETFs: The Latest Global Trend.]
For more stories about new ETFs, visit our New ETFs category.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this category.