Evolve Funds launches gender diversity and cybersecurity ETFs in Canada

Sep 25th, 2017 | By | Category: Equities

Evolve Funds has introduced two thematic ETFs to the Canadian market. The first-of-their-kind ETFs in Canada, the Evolve North American Gender Diversity Index ETF (HERS) and the Evolve Cyber Security Index ETF (CYBR), have begun to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Evolve Funds launches gender diversity and cybersecurity ETFs in Canada

Evolve Funds launches gender diversity and cybersecurity ETFs in Canada

HERS tracks the Solactive Equileap North American Gender Equality Index. The index targets North American companies that have demonstrated a commitment to gender diversity as part of their corporate social responsibility strategy.

Raj Lala, president and CEO of Evolve Funds, commented: “As environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing becomes more important to investors, our Gender Diversity ETF is a clear fit since it results in good governance.

“Many large companies are making gender diversity a priority for their businesses as numerous evidence suggests that greater gender diversity results in better corporate performance. Gender diversity is becoming a prominent topic with Canadians – and this ETF provides an opportunity to support it through investment.”

The index is backed by data analytics powered by Equileap, an organisation aiming to accelerate progress towards gender equality in the workplace. Equileap has gathered data on over 3000 publicly-listed companies in 23 countries and ranked them according to 19 gender equality criteria covering leadership, career development, work-life balance, equal pay, family leave, as well as health & safety.

The Solactive Index is based on standard liquidity criteria, as well as a light environmental, social and governance (ESG) and in-depth gender screenings both provided by Equileap.

“We are very pleased to be working with Equileap, whose comprehensive gender ranking methodology make them an important component for this ETF,” continued Raj Lala. “They go beyond just simply looking at the percentage of women on boards or in management, but also women in the workforce and existing HR policies. We are also proud to support gender diversity as an organization and currently intend to use 10% of the management fee we receive from HERS towards donations and sponsorships to charities and organizations that support women’s causes.”

Diana van Maasdijk, CEO of Equileap, commented: “We strongly believe that promoting transparency by ranking companies globally based on a fact-based, thorough methodology will encourage companies to demonstrate an even stronger commitment to gender equality. We are proud to be part of Canada’s first Gender Diversity ETF– Canada is a country that has been particularly active in promoting gender equality in the workplace, both in the public and private sectors over the past few years.”

CYBR tracks the Solactive Global Cyber Security Index and is the first ETF in Canada that invests primarily in equity securities of global companies that are involved in the cybersecurity industry through hardware and software development.

“Many corporate CEOs and government officials mention that cyber risk is at the top of the list of items that keep them up at night,” stated Raj Lala. “Cybercrime costs the global economy over $3 trillion annually and is expected to rise. As cybercrime is constantly increasing and changing, the demand for cybersecurity services will most definitely increase as well – and that’s why we’re launching this first-in-Canada ETF.”

HERS and CYBR each have a management expense ratio of 0.40%. They are also offered in CAD-hedged share classes under the ticker codes HERS.B and CYBR.B for the same fees.

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