AVXC vs EMKT

AVXCAAvantis Emerging Markets ex-China Equity ETF

EMKTCLazard Emerging Markets Opportunities ETF

In short

AVXC The China question, answered by subtraction. Avantis runs its usual emerging-markets playbook (roughly 2,800 stocks of every size, tilted toward the cheap and the profitable) with China left out entirely, for 0.33% a year.

EMKT Old-school value hunting in emerging markets: Lazard's managers buy non-US companies they read as cheap on earnings, cash flow, or asset values. A human-picked portfolio with roots in 2013, not an index clone.

Stated mandate

AVXC The fund invests in a broad set of companies across emerging-market countries, excluding China, and spanning all market capitalizations. It seeks higher expected returns by overweighting securities with lower valuations and higher profitability ratios.

EMKT The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation. It primarily invests in equity securities, principally common stocks, of non-U.S. companies whose main activities are in emerging markets and that the manager considers undervalued based on earnings, cash flow, or asset values.

Why people hold it

• AVXC 0.33% a year, about half the typical fee among active EM funds, and the ex-China carve-out costs no more than Avantis charges on its with-China flagship, AVEM.
• Roughly 2,800 holdings spanning all market-cap sizes, so removing China doesn't turn the fund into a concentrated bet on a few large markets.avantisinvestors.com
• Actively run against MSCI Emerging Markets IMI rather than tracking it: the mandate overweights lower-valuation, higher-profitability companies.
• One of the stronger builds in the active emerging-markets group we review, on cost and portfolio construction alike.

• EMKT Real stock picking: managers target EM companies they judge undervalued on earnings, cash flow, or asset values, so the lineup can look nothing like a cap-weighted benchmark.
• The strategy dates to 2013, so it has been run through multiple emerging-market cycles rather than launched into whatever theme is hot this year.
• Simple plumbing: a standard 1940 Act equity fund holding common stocks of non-US companies, not a derivatives wrapper you need a manual to decode.

Worth knowing

• AVXC Thinly traded next to the giants of the category, so spreads and limit orders matter more on the way in and the way out.
• Launched in 2024, so the live record is short and the risk picture is still forming.
• Leaving China out is a real departure from standard EM exposure, and the value and small-cap tilts add more distance from a plain cap-weighted index.

• EMKT At 0.74% it runs above the typical active EM fund, and the cohort's strongest-rated names (AVEM, JEMA, AVXC) charge 0.33%. It sits in the lower half of that peer group.
• Thin trading volume and a modest asset base mean bid-ask spreads matter more here than in the giant EM index funds.
• Cash distributions arrive once or twice a year at most; the stated goal is long-term capital appreciation, not income.

Full AVXC profile⁠

Full EMKT profile⁠