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First Trust, one of the fastest growing U.S. ETF issuers, filed plans for seven new country-specific ETFs, all of which will compete directly with existing products from iShares, the worlds largest ETF issuer.
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The new ETFs First Trust may introduce are the First Trust Germany AlphaDEX Fund, First Trust Canada AlphaDEX Fund, First Trust Australia AlphaDEX Fund, United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund, First Trust Taiwan AlphaDEX Fund, Hong Kong AlphaDEX Fund and the First Trust Switzerland AlphaDEX Fund.
The First Trust Switzerland AlphaDEX Fund, First Trust Germany AlphaDex Fund, First Trust Hong Kong AlphaDex Fund, First Trust Taiwan AlphaDEX Fund and the First Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund will feature expense ratios of 0.8%. Expense ratios were not disclosed for the Australia and Canada ETFs.
In 2011, First Trust introduced nine AlphaDEX funds tracking various emerging markets and developed and emerging regions including the First Trust Brazil AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FBZ) and the First Trust South Korea AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FKO).
The new batch of ETFs First Trust has filed plans for represent potential rivals to the some well-established iShares ETFs such as the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund (NYSE: EWA), which has $2.7 billion in assets under management. The iShares MSCI Canada Index Fund (NYSE: EWC) has over $4.6 billion in AUM while the iShares MSCI Taiwan Index Fund (NYSE: EWT) has over $2.25 billion in AUM
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The iShares MSCI Germany Index Fund (NYSE: EWG) has over $2.27 billion in AUM and the iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index Fund (NYSE: EWH) has almost $1.9 billion in AUM. The iShares MSCI Switzerland Index Fun (NYSE: EWL) has $490.2 million in AUM.
All of those iShares ETFs are by far the largest ETFs offering exposure to aforementioned countries. First Trust had 60 ETFs with almost $6.3 billion in AUM at the end of last year.
