ishares iBonds: an ETF novelty in Germany

The ETF provider iShares has launched Europe's first maturity ETFs ( 6 different ) with access to corporate bonds. Based on the fixed maturity of the ETFs, you know exactly your expected return and of course the investment horizon when you buy.

This means that iBonds ETFs - like normal, individual bonds - are redeemed at maturity. In contrast, traditional bond ETFs track a consistent maturity band, which is achieved by regularly shifting the bonds included in the ETF.

All six ETFs include investment grade corporate bonds, with the weighting of any single issuer limited to 3 percent. In addition, only sustainable bonds are included.

Investors can choose between bonds denominated in U.S. dollars or euros and available in the distributing and accumulating variants, each maturing in December 2026 or December 2028.

For the sake of simplicity, I will describe only the distributing variants here.

These all pay quarterly and in the months of March, June, September and December.

TER is 0.12% for all 6 variants.

as of 08/24/2013:

-iShares iBonds Dec 2026 Term € Corporate UCITS ETF

Fund size: 22.21 million, Positions: 237 ISIN: IE000SIZJ2B2 $IB26 (-0.7%) Yield: 3.71% Coupon: 1.65%

-iShares iBonds Dec 2026 Term $ Corp UCITS ETF (Dist)

Fund Size: 21.58M, Positions: 318 ISIN: IE0007UPSEA3 $ID26 (-0.44%) Yield: 5.21% Coupon: 3.08%

-iShares iBonds Dec 2028 Term € Corp UCITS ETF (Dist)

Fund Size: 29.99 million, Positions: 270 ISIN: IE000264WWY0 $IB28 (-0.12%) Yield: 3.71% Coupon: 1.76

iShares iBonds Dec 2028 Term $ Corp UCITS ETF (Dist)

Fund Size: 21.58M, Positions: 305 ISIN: IE0000VITHT2 $ID28 (-0.53%) Yield: 5.31% Coupon: 4.16%

iShares' iBonds concept may not be a revolution that makes all other bond ETFs obsolete, but it is definitely a great novelty and useful addition to previous bond ETFs.

Personally, I find the iBonds Dec 2028 in $ best as the sectors are balanced. In the others, the banking sector has min 31%.

What do you think of the "new" bond ETFs ?

Source:

extraETF https://extraetf.com/de/etf-search?asset_class=3&bond_strategy=1301

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