Horizons ETFs Management (LATAM), a member of the Horizons ETFs Group, has announced the launch of its second Latin American exchange traded fund, the Fondo Bursátil Horizons Colombia Select de S&P, which provides investors with exposure to the S&P Colombia Select Index. The Horizons Colombia Select ETF began trading on Thursday on the Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC) under the ticker symbol HCOLSEL.
The Horizons Colombia Select ETF will seek to replicate the returns of the Index. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC designed the Index to provide exposure to the largest and most liquid domestic stock issuers in Colombia. S&P’s selection universe for the Index is based on all the securities in the S&P Colombia BMI that trade on the BVC.
The Horizons Colombia Select ETF was developed in association with Fiduciaria Bogotá S.A., one of Colombia’s largest mutual fund providers. Fidubogotá will act as the management company to the Horizons Colombia Select ETF and Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc., an affiliate of Horizons LatAm, will act as portfolio manager.
“With a single investment, investors can now have efficient access to the Colombian equity markets,” said Federico Torres, Head of Latin American Sales for Horizons LatAm. “In our view S&P has developed a superior index strategy for Colombia which reduces the issuer and sector concentration risks that exist in current Colombian stock market benchmarks. Since no single stock will have more than a 15 per cent weight in the Index and no sector will have more than a 40 per cent weight, investors in the Horizons Colombia Select ETF can be confident they will be gaining exposure to a more diversified Colombian solution than what currently exists,” added Torres.
“The Horizons Colombia Select ETF is our second ETF launch in Latin America, and gives investors low cost exposure to a more diversified index than other benchmarks in the marketplace,” said Howard Atkinson, Managing Director of Horizons LatAm and the Global Head of Sales and Marketing for Mirae Asset Global Investments’ ETF business. “One of our strategic objectives is to take the best practices we’ve learned from our global ETF business and leverage them in local markets. We have a strong business relationship globally with S&P and are pleased to be able to offer their top-tier index strategies to Latin American investors.”
The Horizons Select Colombia ETF is the first ETF launched in the Colombian market and administered by Fidubogotá, the local pioneer of end-to-end custody and administration solutions for funds.
“We are very proud to bring this product to market in conjunction with Horizons ETFs. For us, it is essential that fiduciaries, especially Fiduciaria Bogotá, offer products that have been developed according to international standards,” said Cesar Prado, President of Fidubogotá. “We think the combination of our strong local presence combined with an adherence to global best practices puts us in a unique position to offer value to a capital markets sector that has been historically dominated by foreign competitors.”
