Amundi lists the USD-hedged version of its ex-US global government bond ETF on the LSE

Amundi is expanding its family of ex-US global government bond ETFs with the listing, on 16 April 2026 on the London Stock Exchange, of the USD-hedged share class.

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Article created by the editorial staff of ETFWorld.co.uk

Benoit Sorel Global Head of ETF, Indexing & Smart Beta Amundi ETF

With today’s listing on the London Stock Exchange of the Amundi Global ex-US Government Bond UCITS ETF USD Hedged Acc (ISIN LU3254330601), Amundi completes the range of share classes available to European investors for this product. The new tranche joins the unhedged version, which was listed on the same exchange on 19 March 2026, and the listing on Deutsche Börse (Xetra) earlier this year.

Fund characteristics

The fund passively tracks the performance of the Bloomberg Global Treasury Large Markets DM ex US Index, a total return index that measures the performance of fixed-rate sovereign debt issued in local currency by major developed countries, excluding the United States and emerging markets classified by Bloomberg in its relevant country list. Coupons paid on the securities included in the index are reinvested in the calculation of the return.

The Total Expense Ratio (TER) of the USD Hedged Acc share class is 0.22% per annum, slightly lower than the main unhedged versions of the same family, which have a TER of 0.20%–0.30% depending on the tranche. The additional cost reflects the cost of implementing currency hedging for the US dollar-denominated portfolio.

The fund is domiciled in Luxembourg, structured as a UCITS SICAV, and adopts a policy of accumulating income (capitalisation). There are no plans for periodic distributions of dividends or coupons.

Index replication and portfolio management

Index replication is carried out physically, through the direct purchase of the bonds comprising the benchmark. The manager employs an optimised sampling (sampled replication) method: the fund does not necessarily hold all the index components, nor in the same proportions, but selects a representative subset aimed at minimising the tracking error relative to the benchmark.

The prospectus states that the manager may use derivatives to manage inflows and outflows of liquidity, as well as for operational efficiency. The fund may also engage in securities lending to generate additional income to partially offset costs.

Composition of the benchmark index

The Bloomberg Global Treasury Large Markets DM ex US Index is a subset of the parent Bloomberg Global Treasury Large Markets Index. The securities included must be issued by governments of developed countries (excluding the US and emerging markets), denominated in local currency and fixed-rate. The index includes markets with the highest volumes of government debt and is rebalanced monthly.

According to data published at the time of launch, the main country weightings in the index are Japan at 19.3%, France at 14.2% and Italy at 13%. These are presumably followed by Germany, the UK and other sovereign issuers from the major developed countries of the eurozone, Asia-Pacific and the Commonwealth. This composition makes the fund a vehicle heavily weighted towards Japanese and eurozone debt.

The market context

Amundi is the first European investment house to have launched a global government bond ETF excluding the United States. The timing is no coincidence. In the first two months of 2026, European ETFs with exposure to global equities excluding the US recorded net inflows of $1.7 billion. The trend towards geographical diversification away from US assets — already evident in the equity market — is gradually extending to the bond market as well, where reducing exposure to US government debt has become a topic of growing interest among European institutional investors.

The currency-hedged version (USD Hedged) meets a specific need: to neutralise the risk arising from fluctuations in exchange rates between the US dollar and the currencies of the countries included in the index (Japanese yen, euro, British pound and other developed market currencies). For a dollar-based investor, or one seeking pure bond yield exposure without currency components, this share class is the most straightforward choice.

Positioning within the Amundi range

The fund forms part of Amundi’s ex-US range, which already includes the Amundi MSCI World Ex USA UCITS ETF launched in 2024. The addition of a bond vehicle with the same geographical focus enables investors to build de-Americanised multi-asset portfolios using a single product platform.

Target investor profile

According to the prospectus, the fund is intended for investors with a basic understanding of investment funds and limited or no experience with this type of instrument. The ability to withstand losses of up to the entire invested capital is required. The document does not specify a recommended minimum time horizon, but for medium- to long-term bond instruments, a horizon of at least three to five years is usually considered.

Source: ETFWorld.co.uk