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Vladimir Nedeljkovic, head of ETF's and index products at Absa Capital, said that with today's listing of an additional 4.4 million debentures (equivalent to 1.35 tons of gold bullion), NewGold Exchange Traded Fund has exceeded R5.1bn in assets under management.
"NewGold was designed by Absa Capital to track the price of gold and create an investment tool to allow institutional and retail investors to invest in a liquid, listed instrument that is fully backed by gold bullion."
NewGold ETF, the only commodity ETF in the local market, was launched in November 2004 with assets under management of just under R250m. Satrix 40, tracking the performance of the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index, was listed in December 2000, with the assets under management of R2.6bn.
Investor interest to grow
Says Nedeljkovic: "Since inception, NewGold has performed extraordinarily well, increasing the gold holdings and the assets under management. Last year and the beginning of this year, were particularly strong."
"Since the beginning of 2007, the gold holdings increased two-and-a-half times from 10.25 tons at the beginning of 2007 to 25.93 tons after today's additional listing. During the same period, the assets under management increased three-and-a-half times, from R1.46bn to R5.1bn."
Nedeljkovic said that with the gold price at an all time high, he expected a lot of investor interest in gold this year.
"Investors are certainly favouring direct investment in gold as it is less volatile and better performing than the investment in gold shares."
The NewGold ETF invests directly in gold. The Satrix40 ETF invests in the JSE's Top 40 shares in proportion to their market capitalisation.
- I-Net Bridge
