U.S. investors looking to invest in the European equity markets can look to two new low-cost Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) ETFs debuting this Friday.
The Xtrackers Germany Equity ETF (Bats: GRMY) and Xtrackers Eurozone Equity ETF (Bats: EURZ) will launch with expense ratios of 0.15% – the ETFs will provide benchmark exposure to the stock markets of Germany and the Eurozone respectively.
Additionally, DeAM will reduce the expense ratio of its Xtrackers Japan JPX-Nikkei 400 Equity ETF (NYSE: JPN) to 0.15%, also effective Oct. 27. JPN provides investors with benchmark exposure to the Japanese stock market by tracking the JPX-Nikkei 400 index.
Arne Noack, Director of ETP Development Group at DeAM, told ETF Trends the low fees on these three ETFs will essentially be direct competitors to the likes of iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU), iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ), iShares MSCI Germany ETF (EWG) and SPDR EURO STOXX 50 (FEZ) – ETFs that total about $40 billion of assets.
“The first three of those are priced at 48 basis points (EZU, EWJ and EWG) and FEZ at 29 basis points,” Noack said. “We come in with a very meaningful cost-saving potential.”
Noack said DeAM recognized there is a lot of demand for the $40 billion in assets linked to those markets.
“If we compare the pricing level U.S. investors have to face here with what Deutsche Asset Management is used to with our European business where we cover those three markets at substantially lower costs to investors, we see a meaningful potential for savings for U.S. investors,” Noack said.
GRMY seeks to track the Nasdaq Germany Large Mid Cap Index, which is designed to track the performance of the German equity market.