Alex Vynokur
Betashares, a leading Australian financial services company, has launched the Betashares Global Fundamental Value ETF (ASX: GVAL), further extending its widely adopted smart beta ETF range.
GVAL seeks to track the FTSE Developed Markets Select ex Australia Fundamental Value Index (before fees and expenses), comprising up to 750 companies. Rather than relying on traditional value investing measures such as price to earnings or price to book value to select potentially undervalued companies, GVAL takes a broader approach to value investing. It looks at business fundamentals – including sales, cash flow, book value and dividends, to determine how much of each company to hold. At each rebalance, the approach trims companies whose share prices have moved ahead of their fundamentals and adds to those whose fundamentals are stronger relative to their share prices.
Betashares has been an important participant in the growth of factor-based strategies and has more than a decade of experience providing smart beta investment strategies through ETFs. Its range spans Australian and global equities and includes value, momentum and quality factor strategies, as well as fixed income. Betashares currently manages over $7 billion across its factor-based equity ETFs. Across the Australian ETF industry, smart beta ETFs covering equities and fixed income are poised to pass $50 billion by the end of 2026, and Betashares expects the category to continue growing significantly in coming years.
Betashares also has a long track record delivering index-based fundamental value strategies, having managed GVAL’s Australian equities equivalent, the Betashares Australia 200 Fundamental Value ETF (ASX: QOZ), since 2013. QOZ has been strongly supported since that time and has grown to $1.4 billion in funds under management.
Betashares CEO Alex Vynokur said Betashares continues to raise the bar by delivering robust factor-based investment strategies through a convenient, cost-effective ETF vehicle.
“We’re proud to expand the choice for investors and financial advisers who want the potential to outperform market-capitalisation weighted indices while keeping costs down. That demand has helped smart beta ETFs grow to nearly $50 billion in assets in Australia, as many investors have sought to replace higher-cost active investments with targeted index-based solutions to suit their risk, return and fee budgets.”
“Our Global Fundamental Value ETF gives investors and financial advisers another high-quality option for building portfolios. GVAL provides broad exposure to up to 750 companies across developed markets outside Australia, weighted by business fundamentals rather than market capitalisation. This gives investors a systematic global value exposure that can complement a core portfolio,” Mr Vynokur said.