In Australia, Fidelity International has rolled out a second active exchange traded fund in response to growing investor demand for active ETFs.
The asset manager launched its global demographics strategy in 2012 as a managed fund. The ETF version of the fund has been listed on Australia's stock exchange under the ticker FDEM.
The actively managedETF will hold between 50 and 70 securities and will aim to beat the MSCI All Country World Index NR benchmark over the medium to long term, with a suggested investment timeframe of seven years.
The asset manager is launching the strategy as a listed vehicle because Australian investors are increasingly interested in actively managed ETFs, and local demand for active ETFs was robust, according to Aneta Wynimko, Alex Gold and Oliver Hextall, and is run by UK-based portfolio managers.
Anthony Doyle, cross-asset investment specialist at Fidelity, said that demographic trends around the world remained largely predictable despite the uncertainty surrounding the political and macroeconomic developments of the past two years.
He said that these demographic factors, such as age, education, income and employment, have not changed much since thepandemic.
The start of the demographics product comes just over three years after Fidelity listed its first active ETF in Australia.
The Fidelity Global Emerging Markets Fund FEMX, which was launched in October 2018, was the asset manager's first active ETF in the Asia-Pacific region.
In April 2018, Vanguard launched two active ETFs in Australia. Sydney-based BetaShares partnered with Legg Mason to launch actively managed ETFs in Australia earlier the same year.
In recent months, several other providers have turned to Australia's active ETF space.
A listed version of its global equity strategy was unveiled by Loomis Sayles, an affiliate manager at Natixis Investment Managers, while AllianceBernstein launched its first Australian active ETF in April.
AMP Capital, however, announced last year it would wind up its active ETFs listed on the local stock exchange after they failed to build sufficient scale.
In April of last year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission changed its guidance on non-transparent activeETFs to urge issuers to improve their internal market-making practices after its review of the products last year.
Australia's ETF industry recorded its strongest quarter in the three months to the end of September, with net inflows reaching A $9 bn $6.4 bn, helping to push total assets past A $129 bn.
Ignites Asia is a news service published by FT Specialist for professionals working in the asset management industry. It covers everything from new product launches to industry trends.