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One of the newest ETFs on the market has a performance record going back to 1987. It also charges more than the mutual fund it lives inside.
GMO International Equity Fund, ETF Class (GMIE, NYSE Arca)
This is not a new fund, and it is not a conversion either. GMO has taken its International Equity Fund, which has been running since 1987, and added an ETF share class to it. The mutual fund classes carry on as before. The summary prospectus explains that “the Fund's ETF Class operates as an actively managed exchange-traded fund”, which is the sort of sentence that only makes sense once you accept that one fund can now be two kinds of fund at the same time.
The usual argument for the ETF wrapper is that it is cheaper. Here it is not. The ETF class costs 0.75% after a 0.15% waiver, built from a 0.50% management fee, a 0.22% class service fee and 0.18% of other expenses. GMO's own fund page shows Class III at 0.68%. The difference is that Class III needs a $35 million minimum, and the ETF needs one share.
The record that comes with it is a good one, with one asterisk printed in the prospectus itself. Returns “include a substantial, one-time litigation settlement recovery”, which “contributed 5.25% to 2024 annual performance”. It is rare for a fund to disclose that one of its best stock picks was a lawsuit.
Those who buy it expecting Jeremy Grantham will find the systematic equity team instead. The fund is quantitative and valuation-driven, invests “primarily in non-U.S. developed market equities”, and recently swapped its benchmark from MSCI EAFE to MSCI World ex USA. Mr Grantham's asset allocation team runs a different GMO ETF, which is easy to confuse with this one and probably will be.
PRIMECAP Odyssey Discovery ETF (POMG, NYSE Arca)
PRIMECAP has spent more than four decades as one of the quietest firms in fund management, best known for running money for Vanguard and for closing its funds to new investors. Its first ETF arrives with eight portfolio managers who, according to the statement of additional information, “collectively have more than 210 years of investment experience”. That is roughly 26 years each, which is longer than the ETF industry has been selling active funds.
The eight do not vote. The firm's own description of its process is that “PRIMECAP does not have a committee or small group that decides on whether or not to invest in an idea. Each portfolio manager makes an individual decision.” The firm also says it “does not use a benchmark for any of its investment decisions”. The statement of additional information then explains that bonuses are measured “on a relative basis, using the Fund's Index”. So the benchmark is ignored for investing and remembered for pay.
The fund buys US mid- and small-caps at reasonable prices, may lean heavily into health care and technology, and “does not invest in American Depositary Receipts”. The fee is 0.68%. The fund's page on PRIMECAP's website still reads “Coming Soon”, and it sits under the mutual funds section, which for a firm this patient feels about right.
iShares Future Robotics and Related Technologies Active ETF (RBTX, NYSE Arca)
I recently wrote about a robotics index that chooses its members by similarity. BlackRock has gone further and lets the manager decide. The prospectus states that BlackRock “determines, in its discretion, whether a company is a robotics company or related technology company”.
There are three ways in. A company qualifies if its industry classification maps to the theme, if its current or forecast revenues meet a threshold, or if management projects it to be a future market leader. The third test does a lot of work, and the first is generous too: the eligible industries include passenger airlines, broadline retail, interactive media services and media.
The theme itself is “the automation of physical tasks by using intelligent machines across industry, services, infrastructure and adjacent applications”. At least 80% goes into robotics and related technology companies combined, so either group could in principle be most of the fund. The objective is to “maximize total return”, and the fee is 0.65%. BlackRock already runs a passive automation and robotics ETF in Europe with about $5.7 billion in it at 0.40%, so the extra 25 basis points buy the right to call an airline a robot.
21Shares Venice Token ETP (VENC, SIX Swiss Exchange)
I recently wrote about 21Shares bringing Zcash and ether.fi to Europe. Its latest token belongs to Venice, an AI platform that describes itself on its as “Private, Uncensored AI”. The token, VVV, is described by Venice as “an access key for AI agents and developers to consume private, uncensored inference through the Venice API, without paying per request”.
In other words, holding the token entitles you to a share of the platform's computing capacity. Holding the ETP entitles you to the token without the computing capacity, which is a little like buying a gym membership and asking someone else to keep it in a drawer.
21Shares has not yet said anything about it. There is no product page, no factsheet and no press release that I could find. Our listing data records it on SIX, and the product appears to have arrived before its own documentation, which for a privacy-focused token is at least on brand.
BNP Paribas Easy II Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF (ANAG, London Stock Exchange)
Not every new listing is a new fund. This one launched in Ireland as the AXA IM Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF, became a BNP Paribas fund when BNP Paribas bought AXA Investment Managers, and has now crossed the Irish Sea to London under its new name.
The rename was, in the words of the announcement, “the final operational step in the integration”, and “does not entail any change to the investment objectives, management policies or operating procedures of the funds”. It holds the hundred or so Nasdaq 100 names physically, does not lend securities, and already manages around €2.5 billion.
The interesting number is the price. Its total expense ratio is listed at 0.14%, under half the 0.30% charged by the two best-known Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETFs in London. British investors have now been offered the same index for less, by a fund that has existed for years and has only just changed its name and its address.
Schwab International Bond ETF (SCIN, NYSE Arca)
The last fund in this batch does exactly what its name says. It tracks an index of non-dollar investment-grade bonds, sovereigns and corporate, from more than 40 countries, with France, Germany, Japan, the UK and Italy expected to be the biggest weights. It then hedges the currency back to dollars, so an American investor gets the bonds without the foreign exchange.
Schwab's press release puts the expense ratio at 0.06%, against a category average of 0.11%.
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