iShares, the Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) platform of BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK), today listed an ETF on the Italian Stock Exchange that offers retail investors efficient access to the securities of small and mid-cap Italian listed companies.
The iShares FTSE Italia Mid-Small Cap UCITS ETF (IPIR) tracks the FTSE Italia PIR Mid Small Cap, an index constructed to reflect the requirements of the new Italian law on tax advantages linked to “Piani Individuali di Risparmio” (PIR)*, if the investment is maintained for at least 5 years.
With the new fund, investors can obtain transparent and diversified exposure through a single instrument to over 150 small and mid-cap companies on the Italian equity market, with the exclusion of companies belonging to the real estate sector or incorporated outside Italy. In particular, 86% of the fund's investable universe is made up of mid-cap stocks, while small-caps make up the remaining 14% of the benchmark index constituents.
The FTSE Italia PIR Mid Small Cap is a net total return index, meaning that the net dividends of the securities of which it is composed are reinvested net of any applicable taxes.
The fund is physically replicated, ie it buys the securities that make up the index, and has a TER of 0,33%.
Emanuele Bellingeri, Head of iShares for Italy, said: “As part of the ongoing process of product innovation, the IPIR ETF expands BlackRock's passive range of functional solutions for investing in the Italian equity market. This is a tool aimed at managers who intend to build PIR-friendly solutions, supporting the real economy and the world of SMEs and at the same time encouraging long-term savings. ETFs can be ideal tools for building PIR portfolios due to their cost efficiency and the ability to broadly and transparently diversify within a potentially volatile asset class.”
