VanEck Emerging Markets High Yield Bond ETF
$19.70−0.08 (−0.40%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.40%
- Fund size
- $521M
- 1Y return
- +5.2%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 6.87%
- Holdings
- 532
- Volume · 30D
- 0.2M sh
- NAV per share
- $19.81
- 52W range
The ETF.net HYEM Grade
Score 63 of 100 sits in the B band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.AScore 70Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.CScore 45Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 58Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 76Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 78Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 76Category rank
Our read on HYEM
BMost funds in the high yield aisle buy American junk. HYEM leaves the country: a passive index of emerging markets corporate high yield, roughly 500 bonds deep, trading since 2012 and paying monthly.
HYEM seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA Diversified High Yield US Emerging Markets Corporate Plus Index.
Why people hold it
- A specialist, not a core holding. It passively tracks an ICE BofA index of emerging markets high yield corporate bonds, a corner most funds in this cohort never touch.
- Spread thin on purpose: roughly 500 bonds, so no single issuer or borrower carries the fund.
- Running since 2012 and paying monthly, with a 0.40% fee that lands right at the median for high yield bond ETFs.
- Lands in the upper half of a crowded high yield field, helped by its broad bond lineup and how smoothly it trades.
Worth knowing
- That 0.40% is median for the category but many times what plain US junk funds charge (SCYB at 0.03%, SPHY at 0.05%). The fee buys the emerging markets mandate, not broad high yield beta.
- Emerging markets credit stacks country and political risk on top of ordinary default risk, so it can behave quite differently from US high yield.
- Moderately traded rather than a giant of the aisle, so limit orders and size discipline matter more here than in the mega-funds.
HYEM Holdings
- Other
- 532
- 7%
- Provincia De Buenos Aires/Government Bo
Sectors
- Industrials100.0%
Geography
- Argentina10.27%
- Turkey9.12%
- Cayman Islands7.98%
- Mexico7.49%
- United Kingdom6.75%
- Colombia6.31%
- Luxembourg5.37%
- India3.51%
- 43.19%
Developed 24% · Emerging 76%
HYEM Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | HYEM |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +4.1% |
| 1 month | −0.8% |
| 3 months | −0.3% |
| 1 year | +5.2% |
| 3 years | +10.3% |
| 5 years | +3.1% |
| 10 years | +4.0% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | HYEM |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +4.1% | |
| 2025 | +9.2% | |
| 2024 | +12.1% | |
| 2023 | +8.3% | |
| 2022 | −13.4% | |
| 2021 | −1.3% | |
| 2020 | +6.9% |
HYEM in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on HYEM yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
HYEM Dividends
- 6.87%
- $1.36
- $0.12 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Sep 4, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Aug 6, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Jul 7, 2026 | $0.14 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Jun 4, 2026 | $0.09 |
| May 1, 2026 | May 6, 2026 | $0.11 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | Apr 7, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 5, 2026 | $0.10 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Feb 5, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Dec 29, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.11 |
| Nov 28, 2025 | Dec 3, 2025 | $0.11 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Nov 6, 2025 | $0.12 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Oct 6, 2025 | $0.10 |
HYEM Risk
- 4.7%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 1.22
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −25.5%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.51
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
HYEM Cost
- The middle half of International High Yield Bond funds
- Median 0.46%
2 of the 13 International High Yield Bond funds charge less.