State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has launched the SPDR Barclays Global Aggregate UCITS exchange traded fund (ETF). The fund is available unhedged on the Xetra exchange, London Stock Exchange, on 30 January and later this year on Borsa Italiana. Share classes hedged to USD, Euro, GB sterling and the Swiss franc will be available in the coming weeks.
The SPDR Barclays Global Aggregate UCITS ETF provides investors with exposure to one of the largest global fixed income indexes. According to BarclaysPoint, it covers 94 percent of the investible fixed income universe with exposure to more than 20 thousand securities, more than 2,400 issuers and 24 currencies in more than 70 countries.
“The extremely low yields in European bond markets make it compelling for European investors to seek access to a broader universe of yield dynamics outside their local region,” said Stephen Yeats, managing director and head of EMEA and APAC Fixed Income Beta Solutions for State Street Global Advisors. “An allocation to the global aggregate index offers investors one-stop-shop access to the global bond market. Used as the basis of a core fixed income allocation, or simply as a source of diversification from domestic bonds, an exposure to the Global Aggregate index may help increase diversification, result in lower volatility and deliver better risk-adjusted returns compared to other bond indices.”
Rory Tobin, global co-head of SPDR ETFs for SSGA said, “Historically, given the complexity of the asset class, global aggregate mandates have been executed by active managers and as such were predominantly the domain of large clients, and out of reach for smaller investors. As the only physical UCITS ETF in the space without securities lending, this strategy has a potential value add for investors of all sizes.”
The SPDR UCITS range of fixed income strategies manages US$10 billion across 33 products and gathered a market share of over 10% of ETF flows in 2017, according to SSGA. Barclays Risk Analytics and Index Solutions (BRAIS) was acquired by Bloomberg from Barclays in 2016 but products retain the Barclays name.
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