Arian Neiron

VanEck is expanding its smart beta range with a new growth international equities strategy, the VanEck MSCI International Growth ETF (ASX: GWTH). Subject to final regulatory approval, this new ETF is expected to commence trading on ASX on 28 August 2025.

For over a decade, VanEck has pioneered smart beta ETF strategies in Australia, with several being the first of their kind on the ASX. These strategies offer investors the ability to construct portfolios with a targeted outcome in mind. GWTH is the newest addition, complementing VanEck’s international quality, value and small cap strategies.

The last decade has also seen ‘growth’ companies outperform ‘value’ companies after many decades of underperformance. Investing in growth stocks has traditionally been the domain of active managers, limiting access by the broader investor population. GWTH democratises this opportunity, with convenient access via ASX at a fraction of the typical active management fee. As with other smart beta strategies, it utilises a systematic, rules-based approach that targets outperformance.

Arian Neiron, CEO and Managing Director of VanEck Asia Pacific, said: “Investors have traditionally bolstered their risk-adjusted returns with allocations that focus on a specific sector, style, size or thematic. This is because the highest-growth stocks tend to be underrepresented in benchmarks. This manifested in the first half of 2025, where the highly visible NVIDIA, Apple and Microsoft mega-caps took a back seat to lesser-known stocks such as defence intelligence company Palantir Technologies (up 492% in the last year)* and mobile advertising platform AppLovin (up 417% in the last year).*

“GWTH will allow investors to add a dedicated growth exposure to their portfolio, for passive fees. Importantly, the growth factor is a diversifier away from the over-held companies, with NVIDIA being the only ‘Magnificent 7’ company currently included in the portfolio. Minimal overlap between GWTH, the international benchmark, and factor ETFs provides further diversification benefits.

“We undertook a comprehensive research and portfolio engineering process to work through shortcomings in global growth benchmarks. We observed that the traditional index often led to diluted growth exposure and style contamination, making it less effective for those seeking genuine growth factor returns. Our objective with GWTH was to develop a smart beta strategy that captured “pure” growth characteristics, and we believe that a disciplined approach to delivering growth exposure can overcome the style drift and capacity challenges often faced by active managers in this segment,” said Neiron.

The launch of GWTH will bring VanEck’s total number of ETFs on ASX to 46, and extends on the business’ commitment to innovation and helping investors access the opportunities.

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*Source: Bloomberg, performance 12 months to 15 August 2025 in AUD. Not a recommendation to act.

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Arian Neiron

New research from VanEck highlights a common misconception that could be short-changing Australian investors. Published last week, the Emerging Strength: Why EM bonds are the future of fixed income report reveals the surprising strength of bonds from emerging market economies, and why they have outperformed developed market equivalents.

This strength is reflected in the performance of both passive and active ETFs in the fixed income/credit spectrum, with emerging market bondsi beating Australian hybrids, subordinated debt and corporate bonds (commonly considered the highest-yielding debt securities) to be the top performing fixed income asset class in Australia over one year and three years.ii

While emerging markets have long suffered the misconception of being “riskier” for investors, VanEck’s analysis, based on the Efficient Frontier framework and Sharpe ratio, revealed that an allocation to emerging market bonds could in fact help investors optimise their fixed income portfolios for better risk-adjusted returns.

Arian Neiron, CEO of VanEck Asia Pacific, said: “2025 has been marked by mass upheaval, and investors are having to challenge some long-held perceptions. The outperformance of emerging market bonds is not a new phenomenon, however geopolitical developments this year have brought alternative exposures into greater focus.

“To many, emerging markets are synonymous with perceived risk due to several crises in in Latin America, Asia and Russia throughout the 80s and 90s. However, these crises were resolved decades ago. The irony is that many of the negative characteristics commonly associated with emerging markets, such as highly indebted governments, gross budget deficits, and loose monetary policy, are more accurately attributed to developed markets – a shift that has become particularly pronounced in light of the US’ burgeoning debt.

“The superior risk-return profile of emerging market bonds reflects a new reality where the hegemony of developed markets can no longer be taken for granted. We have observed the fiscal prudence of many countries in the Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe regions, which stand out for having low-inflation, stable currency environments conducive to sustainable growth. We are also cognisant that emerging markets are not a monolith, and countries that have demonstrated fiscal strength historically are not immune to monetary missteps. Taking full advantage of the opportunities in emerging markets debt, we think, requires an unconstrained active approach, and strategies like VanEck’s active emerging markets bonds ETF provide access to this market,” said Neiron.

The VanEck Emerging Income Opportunities Active ETF (EBND) is the top-performing fixed income ETF in Australia over the one-year and three-year timeframes.ii Benefiting from an actively managed, unconstrained approach, EBND invests in sovereign and corporate bonds denominated in hard and local currencies that are diversified by currency, region, maturity, duration and credit.

Read the report.

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Arian Neiron, VanEck CEO and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, said: “The Australian ETF industry experienced record net flows last year, and we anticipate this record will be surpassed in 2025 with wealth managers increasingly adopting ETFs as the preferred building blocks for portfolio construction. The ability to achieve targeted investment outcomes and access systematic, research-backed strategies with relatively low fees and ease of accessibility on exchange is driving this momentum, making ETFs the go-to option for investors and advisers alike.

“The Australian ETF market is on track to surpass $300 billion by year-end, with 2025 shaping up to be a defining moment in the industry’s evolution. Advancements in systematic investing and the integration of artificial intelligence are set to redefine the ETF landscape, creating new opportunities for investors. Expanding the team is indicative of our commitment to being at the forefront of investment innovation, and ensuring our capabilities, products, services, and insights remain best in class for Australian investors,” said Neiron.

VanEck’s investments and capital markets team will be expanding with the appointment of Anna Wu to in the newly created role of senior associate, cross-asset investment research. Anna will bring additional expertise in multi-asset investment research and strategy, and financial modeling. Prior to joining VanEck, Wu held senior consultant and investment associate positions at PwC and Macquarie Group, with a focus on banking and capital markets, and investment strategy.

The firm’s client services capabilities will also be bolstered with the creation of two new positions. Claudia Catalanotto is now Client Solutions Executive and Matthew Sullivan has joined the team as Business Development Associate. Formerly an M&A specialist at EY, Sullivan will focus on supporting VanEck’s growing client base in New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria.

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Arian Neiron

VanEck will be listing the first Australian equity long short ETF on ASX on 23 January 2025. The VanEck Australian Long Short Complex ETF (ASX: ALFA) is an actively managed, high conviction, unconstrained Australian equity portfolio that targets long and short positions.

ALFA represents an extension of VanEck’s brand, capabilities and track record. Globally, its history in active fund management dates back to the 1950s – a heritage that has transposed into the business’ ecosystem and philosophy. For over a decade, VanEck has leveraged a substantive quantitative platform to devise innovative smart beta ETF strategies in Australia across a range of asset classes – from equities to credit and fixed income, as well as being leaders in alternatives such as gold and digital assets.

ALFA’s investment approach utilises VanEck’s deep quantitative background and active capabilities. Led by a team of experienced portfolio managers with a unique combination of actuarial and quantitative qualifications, the fund leverages an active management framework that analyses tens of thousands of data points in real-time. The outcome of the process is that it identifies those companies that have a statistically significant probability of excess return and those that have a higher probability of underperforming. The resulting portfolio consists of long and short Australian equity positions that aim to outperform the S&P/ASX 200 over the medium to long-term.

Arian Neiron, VanEck CEO and Managing Director, Asia Pacific said: “The Australian equity market is littered with inefficiencies to exploit. It is hyper-concentrated, over-crowded and lacks persistent ‘factor’ dominance. With style, sector and size leadership proven to be highly idiosyncratic, this has presented an opportunity to exploit the market’s inefficiencies through a highly active approach in 2025 and beyond.

“The launch of ALFA is timely given the complexities of the current investment climate. We saw last year that market swings and sector-level dispersion were more pronounced than ever, with shifting global growth expectations, geopolitical tensions and the evolving interest-rate environment impacting performance. This volatility is expected to persist into 2025. Meanwhile, style rotations and valuation gaps are presenting short-term opportunities in the Australian market that require adaptability that are not supported by traditional active funds but will complement core beta and smart beta approaches,” said Neiron.

VanEck has a history of harnessing technology-driven insights and advanced analysis to fuel investable opportunities. As the pioneer of smart beta ETFs across equities and fixed income on the ASX, VanEck developed single factor quality and value strategies as well as a multi-factor emerging markets equities, and higher-yielding Australian corporate bonds strategies as well as pioneering equal weight investing in Australia. These innovations have enabled investors to construct investment strategies with targeted outcomes.

“Recent and ongoing advances in technology and programmable learning have enabled us to identify a compelling new opportunity for the investing community. We think investment approaches such as the one ALFA offers are the portfolio construction tools of the future, and are positioned to deliver an all-weather solution for Australian equity investors seeking excess returns,” said Neiron.

The launch of ALFA brings VanEck’s total number of ETFs on ASX to 44 and extends on the business’ commitment to innovation and helping investors access the opportunities.

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