BlackRock, Inc. said that its iShares Exchange Traded Funds business has launched a new fund focused on corporate bonds in emerging market countries.
The iShares Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund (BATS: CEMB) is designed to offer broad access to dollar-denominated, investment grade and high yield bonds issued by corporations based in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The fund has an expense ratio of 60 basis points.
Meanwhile, an Irish-domiciled fund with the same exposure listed earlier on the London Stock Exchange.
The company markets the new fund as the first index-based ETF to offer targeted exposure to emerging markets corporate debt.
“Investors are becoming more sophisticated in how they build fixed income portfolios. As part of this trend, we are seeing a growing interest in ETFs that provide exposure to new asset classes such as emerging market corporate bonds,” said Matthew Tucker, head of iShares Fixed Income Strategy at BlackRock, in a statement.
“Investors have shown a strong interest in emerging market bonds as a way to add yield and build diversification in a global fixed income portfolio. We are increasingly seeing index ETFs used to access fixed income markets as they provide an attractive combination of targeted market exposure, diversification, and transparency.”
