BILD vs IGF

BILDCNomura Global Listed Infrastructure ETF

IGFAiShares Global 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.

IGF About 80 developed-market infrastructure companies in one ticker, tracked against the S&P Global Infrastructure Index since 2007, for 0.37% a year (well under the category norm).

Stated mandate

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

IGF The Fund seeks to track an index of developed-market equities focused on the infrastructure industry.

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

• IGF Costs 0.37% a year against a cohort median of 0.55%, so the toll on a long hold is smaller than most infrastructure funds charge.
• The one other fund on the same S&P Global Infrastructure Index, GII, charges 0.40%. Same benchmark, cheaper wrapper here.
• Trading since December 2007, now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund that has tracked its index closely.
• Goes global where the biggest peers stay home: IFRA and PAVE are US-only, while this one spans developed markets worldwide.

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

• IGF About 80 holdings in one industry. A concentrated basket, so a bad stretch for utilities or transport operators shows up fast.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly, and foreign holdings bring currency swings along with the dividends.
• Developed markets only. The fast-building infrastructure of emerging economies sits outside the mandate.

Full BILD profile⁠

Full IGF profile⁠