BKGI vs NFRA

BKGIBBNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income ETF

NFRAANorthern Trust STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure ETF

In short

BKGI Active, not indexed: Newton's team picks about 40 dividend-paying infrastructure names and counts telecom, health care and real estate as infrastructure alongside grids and pipelines. Fee: 0.55% net of a waiver through February 27, 2027.

NFRA Most global infrastructure funds stop at utilities and toll roads. NFRA's index goes wider, adding cell towers, data centers, hospitals, prisons and postal routes to the pipelines and railroads, across developed and emerging markets.

Stated mandate

BKGI The fund seeks long-term total return through capital growth and income, investing primarily in dividend-paying infrastructure companies.

NFRA The fund seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure Index.

Why people hold it

• BKGI Casts a wider net than index infrastructure funds: energy, industrials and utilities, plus communication services, health care and real estate.sec.gov
• Income is the stated job. It targets (does not guarantee) a gross forward-looking 12-month yield of 6% or more, no derivatives or option overlays, paid quarterly.bny.com
• 0.55% net of a waiver through February 27, 2027 (0.65% gross) sits near the infrastructure category median, even with a team picking every name.
• Newton, a BNY affiliate, has run this global infrastructure dividend strategy for institutions since 2011. The ETF wrapper arrived in 2022, and it is now a multi-billion-dollar fund.bny.com

• NFRA Five supersectors in one wrapper: communications, energy, utilities, transportation and government outsourcing (hospitals, postal, correctional), across roughly 220 holdings.flexshares.com
• Charges 0.47% net (0.48% gross), net of a waiver through March 1, 2027, below the infrastructure category median.
• The index does real work: half of revenue must come from infrastructure, names must clear a $1 million daily-volume screen, and sector caps limit crowding. Rebalanced quarterly.flexshares.com
• Listed in 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays quarterly, it sits among the stronger builds in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• BKGI Index rivals cost less: IFRA at 0.30%, IGF at 0.37%. Here you pay for security selection, not benchmark replication.
• About 40 holdings means each name carries real weight next to index funds holding hundreds.
• No index to track: outcomes ride on one team's calls, across a mandate that reaches global and emerging markets.sec.gov

• NFRA Cheaper options sit on the same shelf: IFRA at 0.30%, IGF at 0.37%, GII at 0.40%. Each tracks a different index with a different definition of infrastructure.
• Broad cuts both ways: telecoms, railroads and postal operators share the portfolio with utilities, so this is not a pure regulated-utility sleeve.flexshares.comflexshares.com 2
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy for the category, which can mean wider spreads on larger orders.

Full BKGI profile⁠

Full NFRA profile⁠