WSKY holds 23 stocks and Diageo is the largest holding in the ETF, commanding a quarter of the fund’s weight. The ETF allocates almost 87% of its weight to distillers with the rest of the lineup split among brewers, soft drink makers and apparel producers. WSKY is a global ETF as 13 countries are represented in the fund. The Great Britain and France combine for 54.5% of the ETF’s geographic weight.
“WWhat we’re seeing in China right now is really positive,” Sam Fischer, Diageo’s president of Asia, told CNBC. “We’re seeing an increasing curiosity around people asking, ‘What is whisky? Where does it come from? What taste do I like?,’” reports CNBC.
The universe of applicable companies are broken down into so-called Core and Non-Core holdings where Core components include those that operate a whiskey distillery and are primarily engaged in the production of whiskey or spirits, whereas Non-Core components are companies not categorized as Core companies but are involved in luxury goods and sale of spirits or mixers. If the underlying index’s aggregate weight of Core companies fall below 85%, additionally components are taken from Non-Core companies based on market capitalization.
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