Invesco has closed its EMU ESG-screened ETF after failing to attract significant assets under management (AUM).
The Invesco MSCI EMU ESG Universal Screened UCITS ETF (EEMU) has just €1.5m AUM since launching on 10 March 2021.
EEMU will stop trading on 12 August and officially close on 14 August.
In a shareholder notice, Invesco said: “The decision of the board to terminate the fund is based on the advice of the promoter and investment manager that the continued existence and operation of the fund is not economically viable.”
Matthew Tagliani, head of EMEA ETF product and sales strategy at Invesco, told ETF Stream. “EEMU was launched in March 2021 as part of our “ESG universal screened” range of eight core beta ETFs integrating ESG criteria into their construction based on a bespoke index methodology that we developed with MSCI.
"This particular ETF was the outlier in the range and failed to gain traction. With no identifiable catalyst to suggest a future change in fortune, we have taken the decision after three years to liquidate the fund.”
EEMU tracks the MSCI EMU ESG Universal Select Business Screens index which offers exposure to 208 companies from across the EU’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
The index applies an ESG screen that excludes companies that have faced severe ESG controversies or are involved in controversial weapons, conventional weapons, nuclear weapons, civilian firearms, oil sands, thermal coal, tobacco or recreational cannabis.
Rebalanced semi-annually, the index assigns an ESG score to each company which is used to re-weight the securities.
The news comes after Invesco promoted Tom Banks to head of UK ETFs and Joe Bello to head of ETF institutional and asset managers earlier this week.
