Another ETF First: A Mongolia-Specific Fund

With ETF issuers rushing to meet surging investor demand for emerging and frontier markets ETFs over the past few years, it could be argued that issuers are running out of countries to create new funds for. Van Eck, parent company of Market Vectors and the sixth-largest U.S. ETF issuer, apparently thinks otherwise and has filed plans to introduce to the Market Vectors Mongolia ETF. If the fund comes to market, it would be the first ETF devoted exclusively to the resource-rich country that shares borders with China and Russia. Currently, no ETFs offer exposure to Mongolia. Van Eck's filing did not mention a ticker or expense ratio for the new fund, but, not surprisingly, the filing did say the ETF will be heavy on energy, industrials and materials names. The new ETF will hold at least 80% of its assets in Mongolia-based firms or companies based outside the Asian country that get at least half their revenue from Mongolia. Mongolia is home to vast coal, copper, nickel, tin and zinc deposits and also possesses some oil, gold and silver reserves. Oddly enough, Mongolia does not appear on the FTSE or MSCI Barra lists of countries with the frontier markets designation. Van Eck, which issues 34 ETFs under the Market Vectors label, had $23 billion in ETF assets under management at the end of April. The firm has been first to market with ETFs tracking emerging and frontier markets such as Egypt, Indonesia, Poland, Russia and Vietnam. Market Vectors was also the first ETF issuer to offer small-cap exposure to Brazil and Russia. The firm also features ETFs that offer exposure to Africa, China, Latin America and the Middle East along with the Market Vectors Colombia ETF COLX and the Market Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF SCIF.