Goldman Sachs Asset Manager (GSAM) has expanded its Access suite of exchange-traded funds (ETF) with the launch of the Goldman Sachs Access High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (Ticker: GHYB). The fund seeks to offer lower-cost access to high yield corporate bond markets.

GHYB seeks to track the Citi Goldman Sachs High Yield Corporate Bond Index, which uses a rules-based methodology, aiming to exclude those bonds with the greatest potential to default or deteriorate in price. It is priced to investors at 34 basis points and begun trading on the NYSE Arca on September 7 with US$50m in assets.

The index is owned and calculated by FTSE Fixed Income, using concepts developed with GSAM. The index measures the performance of high yield corporate bonds denominated in US dollars that meet certain liquidity and fundamental screening criteria.

GHYB will be passively managed by GSAM's Global Fixed Income team. GHYB joins GSAM's first corporate credit ETF, the Goldman Sachs Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (Ticker: GIGB).

Thailand exchange partners with Bangkon Capital for new ETF

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is gearing up to list the BCAP SET100 ETF (BSET100), the first ETF to be listed on the exchange this year. The new ETF is managed by Bangkok Capital Asset Management and aims to track the performance of SET100 Total Return Index (SET100 TRI).

The SET100 is comprised by the 100 large-cap domestic stocks with high liquidity and includes returns from both capital gains and dividends. SET100 TRI's average return was 10.40% per year over the past five years (2012-2016).

Bualuang Securities, a market maker and participant dealer, has committed to provide liquidity and guarantee transactions at all times during trading hours to enhance the market confidence.

Sun Life Global Investments to acquire Excel Funds

Sun Life Global Investments (Canada), the mutual funds division of Toronto-based Sun Life Financial Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Toronto-based investment manager Excel Funds Management.

The deal will help Sun Life Global Investments' expansion through new emerging markets offerings and add Excel's ETFs to its capabilities. It also aligns with Sun Life Financial's broader strategy to expand its wealth management business in Canada.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sun Life will purchase all of the outstanding shares of both Excel Funds Management and Excel Investment Counsel Inc. Excel Funds specializes in emerging markets funds, and has approximately CAD$700 million in assets under management (AUM).

The deal will help Sun Life to grow its assets and expand its investment offerings to include new emerging markets options and ETFs. Excel Funds launched its first ETFs in May. Financial and other terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2017, subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approval unitholder and shareholder approvals.

Franklin Templeton launches smartbeta suite in the UK

Franklin Templeton Investments has launched its first suite of smart beta ETFs to the UK market with four equity products. The funds seek to deliver higher risk-adjusted returns and lower volatility than their investment universes. They are the Franklin LibertyQ US Equity, Franklin LibertyQ Global Equity SRI, Franklin LibertyQ Global Dividend, Franklin LibertyQ European Dividend Ucits ETFs.

The funds offer exposure to large and mid-cap stocks in the US; stocks globally that are considered to be environmentally and socially responsible; high quality stocks globally using a dividend persistence and yield screen followed by a quality screen; and high quality stocks in developed countries in Europe using a dividend persistence and yield screen followed by a quality screen.

Head of global ETFs Patrick O'Connor said the expansion to UK investors follows successful launches in the US and Canada. The portfolio management team will consist of US-based Dina Ting, vice president and senior portfolio manager of the Global ETFs group and London-based Lorenzo Crosato, who joined Franklin Templeton last month. Both had previously been at Blackrock.

The smart beta range will be based on the custom Franklin LibertyQ indices, which are custom weighted using four factors - quality, value, momentum and volatility. Fees for the London Stock Exchange-listed products range between 0.25 and 0.45%. The four new ETFs are Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (Ucits)-compliant.

Pimco rollsout smartbeta RAFI ETFs

Pimco has launched three smart beta equity ETFs designed to provide investors with diversified exposure to multiple equity factors, including value, quality, low volatility, momentum and size. The ETFs are benchmarked to the Research Affiliates' RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor indexes, which employ a dynamic factor weighting methodology in an effort to generate attractive returns for clients.

The three ETFs - Pimco RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor US Equity ETF; Pimco RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor International Equity ETF; and Pimco RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor Emerging Markets Equity ETF, are aimed at helping 'clients navigating an increasingly disparate smart beta and factor landscape'.

In a low return environment, investors are looking for strategies that can potentially generate above-market returns in the years ahead, stated Pimco. The research and theory backing the RAFI indexes support that the five equity factors - value, quality, low volatility, momentum and size - have the potential to outperform the broader equity market over the long term.

Pimco RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor ETFs seek to deemphasize the factors that are expensive compared to historical norms while emphasizing those that are undervalued, thereby introducing a buy-low, sell-high discipline in the factor investing world. The new ETFs also incorporate fundamental indexing, which weights stocks by economic size, rather than by market capitalization, which can skew weightings toward stocks already trading at high valuations.

ETP assets listed globally up by 35% YTD

Assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed globally have increased 35.5% in the first eight months of the year to reach a new record of US$4.8tr at the end of August 2017, according to ETFGI.

According to the research company, the global ETF/ETP industry had 7,019 ETFs/ETPs, with 13,199 listings, from 331 providers listed on 70 exchanges in 56 countries. ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered a record US$42.43bn in net inflows in August marking 43 consecutive months of net inflows and a record level of US$433.6bn in year to date net inflows which is more than double the US$216.5bn in net inflows at this point last year and the US$43bn more than the US$390.6bn net inflows gathered in all 2016.

Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered a level of US$23.4bn in net inflows in August, bringing year to date net inflows to a record level of US$295.6bn, which is much greater than the net inflows of US$74.2bn over the same period last year and more than the US$234.4bn gathered in all 2016.

Assets invested in fixed income ETFs and ETPs reached US$11.1bn in net inflows in August, growing year to date net inflows to a record level of US$107.2bn, which is greater than the same period last year which saw net inflows of US$93.5bn. Commodity ETFs/ETPs accumulated net inflows of US$1.3bn in August. Year to date, net inflows are at US$5.6bn, which is significantly less than the net inflows of US$33.6bn gathered over the same period last year.

iShares captured the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in August with US$13.6bn, followed by Vanguard with US$10bn and Nomura AM with US$4.4bn net inflows. YTD, iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows with US$172.6bn which is above the US$137.9bn gathered in all of 2016, followed by Vanguard with US$101.7bn and Nomura AM with US$18.09bn and Schwab ETFs with US$18.04bn in net inflows.