The exchange-traded fund specialist is offering European investors equity exposure to the world’s second largest economy.

(Repeat of article published last week in WealthBriefing; republished here for the benefit of Asia-based readers.)

WisdomTree, in partnership with ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (International) (ICBCCS), has launched its first UCITS exchange-traded fund tracking the S&P China 500 Index that covers all Chinese equity share classes.

The new Luxembourg-domiciled product comes as part of WisdomTree and ICBCCS's recently agreed global product partnership in which the companies can jointly launch, market and distribute ETFs tracking the S&P China 500 Index around the world.

The ICBCCS WisdomTree S&P China 500 UCITS ETF Class B USD is available on the London Stock Exchange. It is also available with a listing in British pounds. The index captures the key characteristics of the total Chinese equity market, including A-shares and H-shares, and other international listings. It includes the 500 largest, most liquid Chinese companies while using a rule-based stock selection process to target the sector weights that are representative of the broad universe of Chinese equities.

China has the highest weight in emerging market indices, and the eighth largest weight in global all country benchmarks, WisdomTree said in a statement.

“Market access to Chinese equities has long been an issue for investors and the creation of a UCITS ETF that covers all the relevant share classes in a single product brings substantial benefits. It represents a cost effective means of allocating to a broad index whilst removing the operational and administrative burdens often associated with accessing A-shares,” said Nizam Hamid, ETF strategist at WisdomTree Europe.

“WisdomTree has an established presence in the ETF world and an impressive track record as an ETF issuer. This complements ICBCCS's in-depth understanding of the Chinese markets, as jointly we bring to investors pioneering solutions for diversified, transparent and efficient tools for accessing China opportunities,” said Laura Lui, head of index and quantitative investment at ICBCCS.

WisdomTree has around $40.6 billion of assets under management globally. ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management is the joint venture between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Credit Suisse. As of the end of March, it had RMB960 billion ($144 billion) assets under management.