Macquarie AM launches global small caps ETF

Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) has launched a new systematic active ETF, expanding its existing range of active ETFs in Australia.

Available today via the ASX, the Macquarie Global Small Companies Active ETF (ASX: MQXS) aims to offer Australian investors access to a broader range of businesses, sectors and sources of return beyond large-cap companies, in an active strategy.

It is the fourth systematic active ETF across MAM's platform and follows the success of MAM's systematic suite of global and domestic capabilities.

Since launching its ETF platform in 2023, MAM now offers four fixed income and five equity ETFs with around $2 billion in assets under management, representing ~5x annual growth.

MAM said the global small cap universe is broad and diverse, making it difficult to assess companies consistently at scale through traditional research alone. MAM said its systematic investment approach is designed to address this complexity by applying a disciplined, data-driven process across a wide investment universe to identify companies with attractive characteristics.

"By applying a systematic process to the vast opportunity set offered by the small cap universe, our strategy seeks to identify companies with desirable characteristics, while helping to reduce the impact of emotional bias that can affect traditional investment approaches," MAM head of systematic investments Benjamin Leung.

"Our approach is designed to make global small caps a more accessible opportunity set for investors, while targeting potential outperformance relative to the index."

MAM said the launch of MQXS reflects growing investor demand for access to global small companies through actively managed ETFs, as investors continue to seek attractive returns and more efficient ways to diversify their portfolios.

MAM head of ETFs Blair Hannon added: "Investors are increasingly looking for active small cap solutions with the potential to deliver consistent excess returns. MAM is the number one active ETF manager by flows on the ASX, with nine actively managed ETFs in Australia totalling assets under management of $2 billion.

"With concentration in large cap stocks in the S&P500 at or near all-time highs, diversification into small caps has become even more important in balancing portfolio exposures. In increasingly complex and volatile markets, investors are looking for strategies that can adapt quickly, manage risk dynamically and identify opportunities beyond traditional index exposure.

"It's very hard for a fundamental team to analyse over 3500 global small companies. A systematic, data-driven investment approach can."