Natixis Global Asset Management has launched its first U.S.-listed exchange traded fund, an actively managed international minimum volatility strategy to help investors build a diversified global investment portfolio.
On Thursday, Natixis rolled out the Natixis Seeyond International Minimum Volatility ETF (NYSEArca: MVIN). MVIN comes with a 0.55% expense ratio.
Frédéric Babu, Alexander J. Nary, Nicolas Just, and Juan-Sebastian Caicedo, who are all part of Seeyond, a global investment unit of the Natixis Asset Management corporation, will serve as portfolio managers of MVIN. The managers may be more flexible and responsive to market moves.
“We are excited to bring our active management expertise to the U.S. ETF market,” John Hailer, CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management for the Americas and Head of Global Distribution, said in a press release. “Investors are increasingly interested in accessing our investment strategies through ETFs, and MVIN provides them an active strategy which can react to market events and seek to take advantage of opportunities with all the potential benefits of an ETF.”
MVIN will focus on developed markets and try to generate long-term capital appreciation with less volatility than typically experienced by international equity markets, according to a prospectus sheet.
The minimum volatility approach helps diminish portfolio risk. Lower-risk stocks have historically offered better risk-adjusted returns than high-risk stocks from 1995 through 2015, according to Natixis.
[related_stories]Specifically, the fund will utilize both quantitative and qualitative factors to identify securities with lower volatility and a reduce the ETF’s overall volatility relative to the developed international equity market. The fund managers will screen for volatility of each individual equity security and correlation of each individual equity security to all other equity securities in the investment universe of international developed stocks.
Natixis argues that investors may find better diversification benefits with international exposure. About 66% of all companies in the world are listed on exchanges outside the U.S. and 7 of the 10 largest companies are based outside of the U.S. Consequently, U.S.-focused investors are missing out on a larger chunk of the global market.
The fund managers will also look for company specific risks, price action, company statements and current events that can affect the price of a company’s stock. Company-specific risks include corporate actions, mergers or acquisitions.
The ETF may cover common stocks, preferred stocks, and real estate investment trusts. Current top holdings include Comfortdelgro Corp 2.9%, ABC Mart 2.8%, Kuehne + Nagel Intl 2.6%, Teva Pharmaceutical 2.6% and Partners Group Holdings 2.5%.
For more information on new fund products, visit our new ETFs category.