iShares launches accumulating fund range

iShares, the world's leading Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) provider, launches nine ETFs on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) including four corporate bond ETFs and five accumulating versions of iShares largest and most successful core equity benchmarks. There are now 129 iShares listed on the LSE and the launch takes the iShares range of fixed income funds to 40 in Europe, the most of any provider in the market.

The new fixed income products are:

iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials contains fixed-rate, investment-grade Euro-denominated securities from non-financial issuers only. Inclusion is based on the currency of the issue and not the domicile of the issuer.

iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials 1- 5 contains fixed-rate, investment-grade Euro-denominated securities from non-financial issuers only with at least one and up to, but not including, five years to final maturity. Inclusion is based on the currency of the issue and not the domicile of the issuer.

iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond 1-5 contains fixed-rate, investment-grade Euro-denominated securities with at least one and up to, but not including, five years to final maturity. Inclusion is based on the currency of the issue and not the domicile of the issuer.

iShares iBoxx £ Corporate Bond ex-Financials tracks the market for non-financial corporate bonds denominated in Pound Sterling. The index contains fixed-rate, investment-grade GBP-denominated securities from basic material, consumer goods, consumer service, health care, industrial, oil & gas, telecommunication and utility issuers.

The accumulating funds are based on five of iShares most successful core equity benchmarks which are already available in the distributing form, paying investors dividend income on a periodic basis. By contrast, the accumulating funds will automatically reinvest any dividend income received back into the fund, rather than paying it to investors. The funds include:

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (Acc)
iShares S&P 500 (Acc)
iShares MSCI World (Acc)
iShares MSCI Europe (Acc)
iShares MSCI Japan (Acc)

Commenting, Axel Lomholt, head of product development for iShares Europe, said: "Despite fixed income being the asset class of choice for many investors in the current climate, it has remained one of the last mainstream asset classes for ETF providers to tackle. This is largely because of the difficulty and complexity for providers in developing products that track many of the broad fixed income indices in the market. Despite this, iShares has developed the leading range of fixed income products in the market by a significant margin and these launches are a reflection not only of iShares product expertise but also our client driven approach to product development.

"For their part, these new funds provide the building blocks for investors to increase their tactical exposure in the Euro Corporate bracket. They allow focussed exposure to sector based fixed income strategies and are unique in the European ETF market. They also offer high liquidity and transparency in fixed income markets which have been traditionally difficult to access.

"The accumulating funds underline our strength in core equities and offer investors more choice when managing their income stream."