The Belgian banking and insurance giant KBC Asset Management is launching the bluesphere° World Equity UCITS ETF – CZK Hedged on Euronext Amsterdam, in partnership with HANetf and Solactive. This product has been specifically designed for Czech investors.
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Article created by the editorial staff of ETFWorld.co.uk
Johan Lema, CEO of KBC Asset Management
KBC Asset Management, the asset management arm of the Belgian banking and insurance group KBC, has officially entered the European ETF market with the launch of its first Exchange Traded Fund: the bluesphere° World Equity UCITS ETF – CZK Hedged, listed today on Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker BSWC NA.
The product was developed in collaboration with HANetf, Europe’s leading independent white-label UCITS ETF platform, and Solactive, a German index provider based in Frankfurt. The fund tracks the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap Index, part of the Solactive Global Benchmark Series (GBS).
KBC Asset Management: a Central European giant
KBC Group is a banking and insurance group with deep roots in five European markets: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. The group’s asset manager, KBC Asset Management NV, operates as the group’s investment arm, working with both retail and institutional clients. The KBC Group reported solid quarterly results in August 2025, with net interest income up 9% year-on-year to €1.51 billion and a net profit of €1.02 billion.
KBC AM reported AUM of approximately €236 billion at the end of 2021, a figure that confirms its significant weight in the European asset management landscape. The group has made the motto “Everyone invested, all the time” – meaning bringing every saver into the financial markets – its guiding principle.
The product: global exposure with currency hedging in CZK
The bluesphere° World Equity UCITS ETF – CZK Hedged is a passive tracker offering diversified exposure to the global equity markets of developed countries. Its distinctive feature is the availability of a share class with currency hedging in Czech koruna (CZK), a solution designed specifically for investors with liabilities denominated in CZK who wish to access international markets without taking on additional currency risk.
This is a unique offering within the European ETF landscape: at the time of launch, there are no other UCITS ETFs of this type that combine global exposure to developed markets with a CZK-hedged share class.
The ETF is available through leading brokers and investment platforms across Europe, ensuring the liquidity and transparency typical of the UCITS ETF format.
The benchmark index: Solactive GBS Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap
The fund tracks the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap Index, which forms part of the Solactive Global Benchmark Series (GBS), a family of benchmark indices designed to reflect the performance of global equity markets.
The index aims to track the performance of the large and mid-cap segment, covering approximately the top 85% of free-float market capitalisation in developed markets. The methodology is rules-based and constituents are weighted by free-float market capitalisation. The investable universe comprises securities listed in developed markets that meet specific tradability and free-float criteria. The index is rebalanced quarterly, in February, May, August and November.
Solactive’s GBS series is widely used as a benchmark by numerous European asset managers and offers consistent and systematic coverage of the world’s major equity markets.
Johan Lema, CEO of KBC Asset Management, said:
“The launch of a CZK-denominated ETF is the logical next step in our ambition to enable everyone to invest, at any time. Our strong presence in key markets allows us to offer simple, cost-effective and reliable investment solutions to both existing and new KBC clients.”
Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive, commented:
“We are delighted to be collaborating with KBC and HANetf on the launch of the bluesphere° World Equity UCITS ETF. We sincerely appreciate the trust KBC has placed in Solactive and are proud to contribute to this important milestone as KBC Asset Management enters the ETF market with its first product. We look forward to continuing this collaboration and providing our support through our expertise in indexing.”
Hector McNeil, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HANetf, added:
“We are delighted to bring KBC Asset Management to the European UCITS ETF market. As one of Belgium’s leading financial institutions, with deep roots in its core European markets, the KBC Group brings significant scale, credibility and distribution strength to the launch.”
The role of HANetf
HANetf is Europe’s leading provider of white-label UCITS ETFs and ETCs, offering asset managers worldwide a comprehensive solution – covering operational, regulatory, distribution and marketing aspects – to launch and manage UCITS ETFs and ETCs. The platform was founded by Hector McNeil and has supported numerous international asset managers in their entry into the European ETF market, acting as an enabling infrastructure for managers who do not have the necessary operational and regulatory structures in-house.
Solactive’s role
Solactive has been developing bespoke, multi-asset class solutions for ETFs and other index-linked products since 2007, counting leading global investment banks and asset managers among its clients. The German provider has built a solid reputation over time for designing precise benchmark indices, and the GBS series represents its flagship product in the market benchmark segment.
Market context
The launch by KBC Asset Management comes at a time when the European UCITS ETF market is experiencing strong growth, driven by rising retail demand, pressure on fees in traditional active funds and the expansion of digital distribution. The ability to offer share classes with currency hedging in local CEE market currencies – such as the Czech koruna – meets a real demand that large global ETF providers often fail to satisfy, due to the smaller trading scale of these markets compared to those in Western Europe.
KBC, with its extensive distribution network in the Czech Republic through the ČSOB brand, is ideally placed to market this type of product to its retail and affluent client base. The launch of a bluesphere°-branded ETF – the product brand chosen for this range – suggests the group’s intention to build, over time, a recognisable family of ETFs, with a positioning that leverages local trust and the cost competitiveness of the passive format.
Source: ETFWorld.co.uk
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