As the emerging markets investment theme has grown in prominence, some investors have pondered using more familiar, developed market companies as a way of accessing developing world growth.
The new EGShares Blue Chip ETF (NYSE Arca: BCHP) does that. The EGShares Blue Chip ETF, which launched Wednesday, is the first self-indexed ETF from Emerging Global Advisors and the firm’s first developed markets fund. Well-known emerging markets offerings from EGShares include the EGShares Emerging Markets Consumer ETF (NYSEArca: ECON) and the EGShares Beyond BRICs ETF (NYSEArca: BBRC). [Other Frontier Markets Feeling the Love]
BCHP tracks the EGAI Developed Markets Blue Chip EM Access Index, “an equally-weighted 30 stock index designed to capture the market performance of quality developed market companies that have measurable, meaningful and growing revenue from emerging markets,” according to a statement from EGShares.
BCHP’s underlying index is home to 30 stocks, each of which accounts for 3.33% of the index. The U.S. is by far the largest country weight at 36.7% while the U.K. and Switzerland are the only other countries to receive double-digit allocations. Luxembourg and Spain round out BCHP’s top-five country weights.
Developed market Consumer staples and discretionary are usually among the sectors with significant emerging markets exposure. As such, those are the new ETF’s two largest sector weights at 20% each, according to EGShares data.
Top-10 holdings in BCHP’s underlying index include Qualcomm (NasdaqGS: QCOM), Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and YUM! Brands (NYSE: YUM). BCHP constituent firms derive a significant portion of their revenue from emerging markets relative to most S&P 500 companies.