Cboe Australia has commenced the quotation of Lazard Asset Management’s first exchange-traded fund (ETF) – the Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Active ETF (GIFL) – in Australia.
The launch, Cboe Australia’s president Emma Quinn said, is a major milestone in Cboe’s bid to drive competition in the market and is a positive step forward in expanding the investable universe locally.
“The delivery of innovative and pioneering products such as this speaks to our vision of changing the face of the ETF marketplace with our leading-edge technology and best-in-class client service,” Quinn said.
According to Cboe, its Australian exchange has experienced strong and sustained growth. There are 29 ETFs and 1,100 other investment products quoted on Cboe Australia, which also captures up to 40 per cent of the Australian ETF daily trading volume.
Other milestones for the exchange include reaching over 20 per cent of total Australian equity trading volume this year and a daily record of $5.98 billion traded value in equity trading.
On the latest Lazard launch, Paul Cuddy, APAC chief executive at Lazard Asset Management, said: “We are thrilled Australian investors can now access this award-winning fund in an ETF structure with Cboe Australia.
“This launch represents an exciting step forward for Lazard.”
Namely, GIFL is a unit class of the Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Fund which was launched in 2005 and has $2 billion in funds under management.
According to Lazard, the ETF is made up of 25 to 50 companies from a select subset of the global infrastructure market that the firm believes provide higher revenue predictability, profitability, and lower volatility.
GIFLs launch follows what has already been a busy year for the local exchange.
In February, Cboe revealed that a suite of iShares products would be made available for the first time.
The Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) also began trading on Cboe last month. Monochrome Asset Management, which initially submitted its application for its flagship product to the ASX in July 2023, later revealed that Cboe “aligns more closely with our strategic vision, market reach, and time frame”.
