Franklin Templeton Investments has expanded its suite of LibertyShares actively managed exchange traded funds, recently launching a global ex-U.S. equity strategy to help investors target international opportunities.
The new Franklin Liberty International Opportunities ETF (NYSEArca: FLIO) comes with a 0.64% net expense ratio.
“The launch of Franklin Liberty International Opportunities ETF marks our first actively managed international ETF and continuing expansion of our LibertyShares offerings,” Patrick O’Connor, Global Head of ETFs for Franklin Templeton Investments, said in a note. “With over 75 percent of the world’s GDP coming from countries outside the U.S., investing internationally can provide portfolio diversification, which can reduce overall risk. As we believe successful international investing can benefit from combining a global investment perspective with local presence and insights, we are leveraging fundamental research from our local asset management and emerging markets teams around the world in managing this new ETF.”
FLIO is managed by Stephen H. Dover, Senior Vice President of Advisors and portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton, and Purav A. Jhaveri, Portfolio Manager of Advisers and portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton.
The new ETF will invest in equity securities of developed, developing and frontier markets outside the U.S. across the entire market capitalization spectrum, according to the prospectus sheet. The exposure to the various regions and markets will vary depending on the investment managers’ opinions on the prevailing conditions and prospects for these markets.
Regions and country weights may include Africa; Australia; Canada; Latin America; Europe (including the United Kingdom); Asia (including Japan, Korea, China and India); and the Middle East.