Schroders repackages active equity strategy into ETF form

Schroders Australia has unveiled its latest addition to its active exchange traded fund (ETF) line-up, with its Schroder Global Core active strategy now available via the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in ETF format.

The Schroder Global Core Fund – Active ETF (CORE) joins the manager’s existing active ETF range covering global equities, fixed income, multi-asset and Australian high-yield credit, including the Schroder Absolute Return Income Active ETF (PAYS), the Schroder Real Return Active ETF (GROW), the Schroder Global Equity Alpha Active ETF (ALPH), and the Schroder Australian High Yielding Credit Fund Active ETF (HIGH). 

The CORE ETF will leverage the underlying strategy’s 25-year track record and its focus on the relatively uncharted area between passive investing and concentration on the fundamentals, while also reducing risk relative to the index.

“The investment landscape is ever changing, and Active ETFs have been a part of that,” Simon Doyle, CEO of Schroders Australia, said.

“They play a vital role in democratising active management with easy access to valuable active investment capabilities. We are delighted to launch an Active ETF for Schroder Global Core Fund today and offer investors access to our successful long-standing global enhanced index strategy and team.”

The wider strategy, now boasting over AUD$30 billion in assets under management (AUM) across institutional and retail investors, provides investors with access to a portfolio of approximately 400 global companies selected from over 15,000 for their value and quality determined by a blend of “quantitative analysis and fundamental insights”. As an extension of the strategy, the ETF offers investors a diversified portfolio with exposure spread across a range of sectors and regions to lower risk and is backed by a history of benchmark outperformance for 20 of the 25 years since the strategy’s inception.

“Since the inception of the Schroder QEP Global Core strategy, markets have presented a variety of opportunities and challenges. Throughout this, our primary goal has been to embed stability for portfolios through strict risk management,” Lukas Kamblevicius, Co-Head of Schroders QEP Investment team, said.

“The strategy has demonstrated strong long-term performance, consistently outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI World Index. We have generated returns consistently in 20 out of 25 years, delivering close to 1% outperformance (composite, gross of fees) on an annualised basis since inception in January 2000.

“With a strong probability of higher volatility in equity markets in 2025 we are well placed through our combined quantitative and fundamentals approach to generate modest, yet consistent, outperformance through the business cycle.”