Since September 26,  the first European actively managed ETF from Schroders has been tradable on Xetra. We spoke with Avni Thakrar-Neeliah, Head of Product & Market Strategy at Schroders, about the listing on Xetra.

Why are Schroders launching active ETFs?

Schroders are launching active ETFs in response to evolving client preferences and broader industry trends. A key driver of this is client centricity: firms are introducing active ETFs to deliver investment products in wrappers that some clients want and understand. This shift is a proactive move to offer greater flexibility, price transparency, and speed—features inherent to the ETF structure. 

What characterises your newly listed products?

At Schroders, we are utilising more than 200 years of investment experience to expand our ETF franchise to a more global market, initially focusing on scalable strategies like global equities and fixed income. These active ETFs will be an additive wrapper, providing additional or new access to strategies rather than replacing mutual funds. This approach supports a more digital and agile distribution model, meeting the needs of both retail and institutional clients. Our active ETFs combine the expertise of active management with the operational benefits of ETFs, such as easier entry and exit, and increased transparency. 

The two new ETFs are: 

• Schroder Global Equity Active UCITS ETF, this is a $24 billion actively managed strategy covering a broad global universe of approximately 15,000 stocks, drawing on a 25-year track record. The focus of the strategy is delivering consistent outperformance across a range of market environments with lower relative risk to its MSCI World benchmark and a low tracking error. The strategy has outperformed in 20 of 25 calendar years since inception delivering a 1.0% annualised (gross of fees) relative return in line with its return target. 
• Schroder Global Investment Grade Corporate Bond Active UCITS ETF, is a pure global investment grade strategy, without exposure to high yield securities or other off-benchmark bonds. The ETF will have limited benchmark relative risk, maintaining a low level of tracking error. The fund’s active systematic approach goes beyond mere index replication, targeting a return of 1% beyond its benchmark, the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Corporate index. The team and bottom-up process have a six-year track record with 1.4% annualised relative returns.