BILD vs IFRA

BILDCNomura Global Listed Infrastructure ETF

IFRAAiShares U.S. Infrastructure ETF

In short

BILD Most infrastructure ETFs hand you an index. BILD hands you a stock picker: global airports, toll roads, pipelines and utilities chosen company by company, at a flat 0.49% fee.

IFRA Most infrastructure funds pick a side: the companies that build the stuff, or the ones that own it. IFRA holds both, stays entirely American, and charges well under the category's typical fee.

Stated mandate

BILD The fund seeks total return through capital growth and income by investing in infrastructure companies.

IFRA The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. companies with infrastructure exposure, balancing infrastructure enablers and infrastructure asset owners.

Why people hold it

• BILD One flat 0.49% fee, with no waiver propping it up. The manager pays custody, audit and most other fund costs out of that number, and there is no 12b-1 charge.sec.govsec.gov 2
• Stock picked, not index copied. The manager researches issuers bottom up and can lean toward the airports, grids or pipelines it rates best.sec.gov
• Global by mandate: normally at least 40% of total assets in non-US securities (30% if conditions warrant), so it is not a US utility fund wearing a world label.sec.gov
• Longer history than the nameplate: it listed in 2023 as a Macquarie fund and came to Nomura through its purchase of Macquarie's US public investments business.sec.gov

• IFRA 0.30% a year, roughly half the typical fee in the infrastructure category and cheaper than bigger-name rivals IGF (0.37%), GII (0.40%) and PAVE (0.47%).
• Tracks the NYSE FactSet U.S. Infrastructure Index, which balances the enablers (builders and suppliers) against the asset owners, rather than betting on the construction cycle alone.
• Roughly 160 holdings spread the theme wide, and the fund pays out quarterly.
• Running since 2018 with over a billion in assets, it sits among the strongest implementations in its infrastructure peer group.

Worth knowing

• BILD Below the category median on fee, yet index rivals undercut it: IFRA runs 0.30% and IGF 0.37%. The stock picking is what the gap pays for.
• A small fund that trades thinly, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than at the category's giants.
• The theme skews to regulated utilities and transport assets, so rate rulings, interest rates and energy prices steer it more than the broad market does.sec.gov

• IFRA US-only by design. The overseas toll roads, airports and utilities that global peers like IGF and GII hold are simply not here.
• A narrow slice of the market, so it can move quite differently from a broad US index in either direction.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy. Limit orders are the sane default, especially around the open and close.

Full BILD profile⁠

Full IFRA profile⁠