ProShares launched a new ETF on Friday that invests in companies which may benefit from transformational changes in how we work, take care of our health, and consume and connect—changes accelerated by COVID-19.
The ProShares MSCI Transformational Changes ETF (NYSE: ANEW) provides access to companies involved with one or more of four key Transformational Changes, as determined by MSCI Inc., the index provider: Future of Work, Genomics & Telehealth, Digital Consumer, and Food Revolution.
ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir said many global industries are experiencing rapid transformational changes that may offer compelling investment opportunities.
“ANEW is designed to harness the potential growth of these companies as they reshape our new world,” Sapir said.
Scott Helfstein, Executive Director, Thematic Investing at ProShares, said the way people behave as workers and consumers is changing—accelerated by COVID-19—and investors should pay attention to the companies evolving to meet these challenges.
“Consider the big picture: use of commercial robots almost tripled to 2.7 million over the past decade, the cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped 99% in 15 years, and e-commerce in the U.S. grew at an annualized rate of 82% in 2020—these are dramatic changes,” Helfstein said.
ANEW tracks the MSCI Global Transformational Changes Index, which includes U.S., non-U.S., developed, and emerging market companies that provide products or services associated with one or more of the Transformational Changes. Each Transformational Change is weighted as 25% of the index, and companies may be selected for more than one Transformational Change. Final weights for each company are subject to a maximum weight of 2.00%.
ProShares now offers one of the largest lineups of ETFs, with more than $40 billion in assets. The company is the leader in strategies such as dividend growth, interest rate hedged bond and geared (leveraged and inverse) ETF investing.