Northern Trust Global Investments, the asset management arm of Northern Trust Corp. of Chicago, has launched the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund that tracks the ISEQ 20 Index, a benchmark for investing in Irish companies.
The NETS ISEQ 20 Index Fund, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, enables American investors to invest in an exchange-traded fund tracking the 20 Irish securities that make up the index.
It is the 15th NETS (Northern Exchange Traded Shares) fund Northern Trust has rolled out this year. The funds are designed to give investors exposure to international equities indexes through shares traded on either the New York Stock Exchange or the American Stock Exchange.
In Thursday's announcement of the new fund, Northern Trust said that "in recent years" Ireland "has seen major growth in investment and trade, a transformation of its infrastructure and a corresponding growth in the employment market. This has had the overall effect of driving wealth creation and enhancing the attractiveness of Ireland for foreign direct investment."
NETS and Northern Trust's ETF business are managed under Northern Trust Global Investment's global quantitative management group, which is headed by Michael A. Vardas Jr. Chad Rakvin heads the team of portfolio managers who oversee NETS investment portfolios.
