Vanguard to Offer ETF Shares for New FTSE Index Fund

The Vanguard Group will offer ETF shares for its new FTSE All-World ex USA Index Fund, which is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2007, the investment company has announced.

A Vanguard news release said the fund will seek to track the performance of the FTSE All-World ex USA Index, a float-adjusted, market-capitalization-weighted index designed to measure the performance of developed and emerging markets outside the United States.

The fund will invest in a broadly diversified sampling of the target benchmark, which comprises more than 2,000 large- and mid-cap stocks of companies in 48 foreign countries, according to the announcement.The offering will also feature Institutional and Investor Shares.

Vanguard began offering ETFs in 2001 and now manages more than $20 billion in exchange-traded fund assets, according to the company. The firm features 27 ETF products, including four launched in 2006:

  • Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF,

  • Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF,

  • Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth ETF, and

  • Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF.

All Vanguard ETFs trade on the American Stock Exchange.

«