The folks at a $133.8-billion-AUM, publicly traded asset manager in Gotham are rolling out two index funds focused on the international defense industry, two months after rolling out a third such fund.

On Friday (September 12), Sam Rines, macro strategist at WisdomTree [profile], unveiled the launch of the WisdomTree Asia Defense Fund (WDAF on the Nasdaq) and the WisdomTree Global Defense Fund (WDGF). New York City-based WisdomTree, Inc. serves as index provider to the new ETFs, WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. serves as investment advisor, and Bank of New York (BNY) subaidiary Mellon Investments Corporation serves as subadvisor.

WDGF and WDAF's inception date was Friday. Both funds come with an expense ratio of 45 basis points. WDAF now has about $787,000 in AUM, while WDGF has about $776,000*.

The WisdomTree Defense Index Committee oversees the WisdomTree Global Defense Index (which powers WDGF) and the WisdomTree Asia Defense Index (which powers WDAF). Both new funds are powered by the PM team, Mellon's equity index strategies portfolio management team. That team includes:

David France, senior vice president, senior portfolio manager, and team manager;

Todd Frysinger, SVP, senior PM, and team manager;

Vlasta Sheremeta, SVP, senior PM, and team manager;

Michael Stoll, SVP, senior PM, and team manager; and

Marlene Walker-Smith, senior director and chief investment officer.

Rines puts the launch of WDAF and WDGF in the context of defense becoming "a truly global investment theme" in light of rising "geopolitical tensions ... across multiple regions."

"WisdomTree is giving investors two timely and differentiated solutions: one capturing the breadth of global defense spending growth and another focused squarely on the rapidly expanding Asia-Pacific defense sector," Rines states.

Both funds are designed to focus specifically on companies directly involved in the aerospace, defense technology, and military equipment industrie.

The debut of WDGF and WDAF comes two months after the WisdomTree team rolled out another international defense fund, the WisdomTree Europe Defense Fund (WDEF on the NYSE). WDEF now has about $13.546 million in AUM*.

WDAF and WDGF are each passively managed, non-diversified series of WisdomTree Trust. The new ETFs' other service providers include:

BNY as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, securities lending agent, and transfer agent;

Ernst & Young LLP as independent accounting firm;

ACA's Foreside Fund Services, LLC as distributor; and

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as counsel.

*As of today. 

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