EFRA vs IGF

EFRACiShares Environmental Infrastructure and Industrials ETF

IGFAiShares Global Infrastructure ETF

In short

EFRA Most infrastructure funds buy the toll road. EFRA buys the suppliers: global companies selling energy efficiency, emissions control and resource-optimization solutions, screened by a green-revenue index and priced under the typical theme fund.

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

EFRA The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. and non-U.S. companies providing infrastructure and industrials solutions intended to support energy efficiency, emissions mitigation, pollution reduction, or land and resource optimization.

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

Why people hold it

• EFRA Reads infrastructure as the supply chain: firms providing energy efficiency, emissions mitigation, pollution reduction and land or resource optimization solutions, US and non-US.
• Cheaper than the typical infrastructure theme fund at 0.47% against a 0.55% cohort median, and level with Global X's PAVE for a narrower mandate.
• Spreads the theme across roughly 80 global names, tracked to the FTSE Green Revenues Select Infrastructure and Industrials Index rather than a hand-picked list.ishares.com
• Sits in the upper half of a crowded infrastructure cohort, with a below-median fee doing much of the work.

• 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

• EFRA Small and lightly traded next to the category's giants, so bid-ask spreads can run wider.
• Not an income-style infrastructure holding: distributions arrive once or twice a year, and the book leans industrial, so it tracks the capex cycle more than a utility-style portfolio.
• The plain-vanilla iShares siblings cost less: IFRA at 0.30% and IGF at 0.37%, without the green-revenue screen.

• 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 EFRA profile⁠

Full IGF profile⁠