MENA Asset Management Survey 2012 - National Bank of Abu Dhabi

Exchange Traded Funds
Regional Background
This study identified 12 ETFs primarily focusing on the GCC and its constituents,
or Egypt 1 . Eight of these are listed outside the region. There are also ETFs with a
broader geographical focus which include some Middle East and North Africa exposure.
Examples include emerging and frontier 2 market ETFs.
There was no change in the number of locally domiciled ETFs in 2012 from end
2011. The first ETF in the GCC region was listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities
Exchange on March 25 th , 2010. This was the NBAD OneShare Dow Jones UAE 25
ETF 3 . The second ETF in the region was listed on Tadawul in Saudi Arabia on March
29th, 2010. HSBC Amanah Saudi 20 ETF was the first sharia compliant ETF domiciled
in the GCC. Plans to launch Oman's first exchange-traded fund (ETF) were also put on
hold in May 2011 with unfavourable market conditions and the tense political
environment in the region being cited. Qatar Exchange CEO was quoted in October
2012 that the exchange was working with a potential issuer for a shariah compliant
ETF which may be launched in 2012. In Egypt, Beltone Financial is in the process
of launching the first ETF to be listed and traded on the Egyptian Exchange
1 Some ETFs have a number of share classes, however, and counting those would bring
the count higher.
2 DB X-Trackers S&P Frontier Index ETF, RBS Market Access MSCI Frontier Markets
ETF, i-shares MSCI Frontier 100, Guggenheim Frontier Markets ETF, RBS MSCI
Emerging & Frontier Africa ex- South Africa are frontier market ETFs which include
MENA components. SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East and Africa ETF run by State
Street Global Advisors includes some MENA exposure and has assets of US$ 91 million,
but this ETF does not have GCC constituents and only limited ME exposure with 4.4% in
Egypt and 3.4% in Morocco; South African exposure accounted for 90.7% of fund
assets.
3 This fund was renamed NBAD OneShare MSCI UAE ETF after the change of its
benchmark. The fund also moved to physical replication instead of swap based
replication.
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