Jun 29, 2022
JEDI Will Battle YODA as Europe Gets Another Space-Themed ETF
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- With Star Wars as its inspiration, a second European exchange-traded fund will test the appetite for the space revolution as some of the industry’s biggest backers -- like Cathie Wood -- get caught in the thematic-asset bust.
The competition in Europe is heating up with VanEck debuting its JEDI product this week just a year after the launch of the Procure Space UCITS ETF (ticker YODA).
VanEck Space Innovators UCITS ETF (JEDI) is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse and has an expense ratio of 0.55%, according to the company. YODA, with an expense ratio of 0.75%, was the first European Space ETF and is tracking the S-Network Procure Space Index, while JEDI tracks an MVIS index.
“A new space age has begun,” Martijn Rozemuller, CEO at VanEck Europe said in a statement. “Space has become a lot easier and cheaper to reach, opening up entirely new business areas.”
The two European products join a handful of similarly themed offerings in North America including Wood’s ARK Space Exploration ETF (ARKX) which had one of the best launches in ETF history. The new ETFs also come almost a year after Richard Branson completed his Virgin Galactic flight to space. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos’ made his own journey to space shortly thereafter.
Since the start of the year investors have been ditching high-flying growth companies for value stocks, leaving pandemic darlings to erase gains. Despite the strong initial appetite for ARKX -- the fund attracted a cash injection of more than $600 million in the first two months after its March 2021 launch -- the fund has seen mostly negative monthly inflows since, with the price tumbling about 34% since inception. The Europe-listed YODA has also lost most more than 30% since its launch.
“ETFs in Europe are still searching for their market in retail clients,” said Henry Jim, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Given the name recognition of Cathie Woods ARKK ETF amongst retail investors in Europe, we are seeing other innovation thematic ETFs reach our shores with JEDI and YODA.”
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