Vanguard Group has announced the filing of a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its first international small-cap index fund.
The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap Index Fund is to offer three share classes — investor, institutional, and exchange-traded fund — and is expected to be available in the first quarter, the Malvern, Pa., company announced Thursday.
The target benchmark for the fund is the FTSE Global Small Cap ex US Index, a market-capitalization-weighted index of stocks traded on markets outside the United States. The fund is to invest in a broadly diversified sampling of securities from the benchmark, which covers more than 3,300 stocks of companies in 47 countries.
The fund's ETF shares have an estimated expense ratio of 0.38%. The investor shares, which will require a $3,000 minimum initial investment, have an estimated expense ratio of 0.60%. And the institutional shares have an estimated expense ratio of 0.35% and a $5 million minimum initial investment requirement.
