iShares International Preferred ETF to Begin Trading Thursday

BlackRock's BLK iShares, the world's largest ETF issuer, will introduce the iShares S&P International Preferred Stock Index Fund IPFF on Thursday November 17, 2011. The new ETF will track the S&P International Preferred Stock Index, which features a basket of developed market preferred issues. Companies included in the index will have market values of over $100 million and their preferred stocks must have traded an average of 250,000 shares per month over the past six months. It looks like the iShares S&P International Preferred Stock Index Fund will be a rival to the Global X Canada Preferred ETF CNPF, which debuted earlier this year, as the new iShares offering will allocate almost three-quarters of its country weight to Canada. The ETF will also offer exposure to preferred issues from New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden and the U.K. As is par for the course with preferred ETFs, IPFF will be heavily allocated to the financial services sector. That group made up of 85% of the ETF's underlying index as of October 24, according to ETF Daily News. Energy names and utilities will also be featured in the ETF. iShares already sponsors the iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index Fund PFF, which features a 30-day SEC yield of almost 6.6%. IPFF will have an expense ratio of 0.55%.