State Street's recent push to expand its ETF lineup is driven by a desire to expand its market share in the industry it pioneered in 1993 with the first ETF to come to market, the SPDR 500 Trust. State Street, which has $85 billion invested in its ETFs and a 28% market share of the $300 billion industry, is runner-up to
State Street's new ETFs are all narrow-niche funds tied to specific sectors, including aerospace and defense, building and construction, computer hardware and software, healthcare equipment and services, outsourcing and IT consulting, and regional banking and mortgage financing. Interestingly, unlike State Street's other ETFs, which bear the StreetTracks brand name, these new funds would bear the SPDR designation.
"We looked at the places where products were feasible in terms of having the necessary liquidity and where there was some demand," said Gary MacDonald, State Street's marketing director.
In an industry that is becoming "highly competitive, crowded and increasingly specialized [State Street is looking] to bring the breadth of their offerings up to that of Barclays Global Investors and now Vanguard," commented Jim Wiandt, editor of Journal of Indexes.