EMCB vs EMHC

EMCBDWisdomTree Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund

EMHCAState Street SPDR Bloomberg Emerging Markets USD Bond ETF

In short

EMCB One of the original emerging-market corporate bond ETFs (2012): dollar-denominated company debt instead of government paper, picked by an active manager rather than tracked. Fee is 0.61%, above the category norm.

EMHC Emerging market debt without the currency roulette. EMHC holds only dollar-denominated bonds, and its index reaches past national governments into state-owned issuers, roughly 500 positions, for 0.23% a year.

Stated mandate

EMCB The Fund seeks a high level of total return from income and capital appreciation by investing in corporate debt issued by entities domiciled in or economically tied to emerging-market countries.

EMHC The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg Emerging Market USD Sovereign and Sovereign Owned Index. It is designed to provide broad exposure to fixed-rate U.S.-dollar-denominated debt issued by emerging-market sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers.

Why people hold it

• EMCB Corporate credit, not sovereigns. Index giants like EMB and BEMB lean on government debt; EMCB's mandate is debt from companies domiciled in or tied to emerging markets.wisdomtree.com
• Actively run, sub-advised by Voya, with portfolio duration kept between two and ten years. Bonds are USD-denominated, so no local-currency exchange-rate exposure.wisdomtree.com
• Pays monthly, and has been trading since March 2012, through multiple emerging-market credit cycles.

• EMHC Costs 0.23% a year, below the median expense ratio in its bond peer group.
• Tracks sovereign and sovereign-owned dollar debt, roughly 500 bonds, so state-backed issuers count too, not just national governments.
• Everything in it is dollar-denominated. Local currency moves against the dollar don't flow into the return the way they do in local-debt funds.
• Pays monthly, and has run inside State Street's SPDR bond lineup since 2021.

Worth knowing

• EMCB At 0.61% with no waiver, it costs more than the category median and more than index peers BEMB (0.15%), EMHC (0.23%) and EMB (0.39%). Active selection is what the extra buys.
• One of the smaller, more lightly traded funds in the category, which can mean wider bid/ask spreads than the category's heavyweights.
• Roughly 170 bonds, mostly intermediate maturities, carrying emerging-market corporate credit and country risk. The JP Morgan CEMBI index is a yardstick here, not a target.wisdomtree.com

• EMHC Not one of the heavily traded names in its category. Spreads can run wider than on core bond funds like BND or SPAB, so order type and timing matter more.
• Emerging market government and state-owned credit brings default and political risk that Treasuries don't, and it sits at the riskier end of its bond cohort.
• The mandate is emerging market dollar bonds only. No Treasuries, no US corporates, so it works as a slice beside a core bond holding rather than as one.

Full EMCB profile⁠

Full EMHC profile⁠