Betashares’ funds under management (FUM) reached a momentous $30 billion in September 20231 serving over one million Australians. Let’s explore the numbers.
The story in numbers
Betashares has come a long way since forming in 2009. At the time, the Australian ETF industry had just $5 billion of FUM. Today it stands at $152 billion2.
Three asset classes make up the majority of that $30 billion: international equities, cash & fixed income, and Australian equities.
In fact, cash & fixed income inflows have overtaken international equities for the first time in four years.
So far this year, nearly $2 billion or two-thirds of the $3.2 billion in inflows to Betashares funds have been to cash & fixed income.
This has been driven by substantial flows into:
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AAA
Australian High Interest Cash ETF
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QPON
Australian Bank Senior Floating Rate Bond ETF
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BNDS
Betashares Western Asset Australian Bond Fund (managed fund)
The top three funds account for one third of total FUM:
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AAA
Australian High Interest Cash ETF
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A200
Australia 200 ETF
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NDQ
Nasdaq 100 ETF
The future of the industry
The last decade has seen the Australian industry largely following in the footsteps of the US industry. We expect market penetration relative to unlisted managed funds to follow a similar trajectory to the US.
US ETF AUM is now ~20% of managed fund AUM. Locally, this number is closer to 5%. If ETF penetration reaches the same level as the US, Australian ETFs could grow to a trillion dollars of AUM. Perhaps even within the next five to 10 years.
References:
1. As at 30/09/2023
2. ASX/CBOE/Betashares
This article mentions the following funds
Annabelle Dickson was previously a journalist at Financial Standard and prior to that at The Inside Investor and The Inside Adviser. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from The University of Technology Sydney.
Read more from Annabelle.