EMSF vs EMXF

EMSFFMatthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Active ETF EMSF

EMXFAiShares ESG Advanced MSCI EM ETF

In short

EMSF Matthews made its name picking stocks in Asia and emerging markets. EMSF points that research at EM companies meeting its own ESG standards: fully active, measured against the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rather than bound to it.

EMXF The strict end of ESG in emerging markets. EMXF follows an index that demands stronger ESG ratings, screens out a long list of controversial businesses, and caps any single issuer at 5% so no one giant runs the show.

Stated mandate

EMSF The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in emerging-market common and preferred stocks that meet one or more of its ESG standards.

EMXF The fund is designed to follow an emerging-market equity index that emphasizes stronger ESG ratings and applies extensive screens to controversial business activities.

Why people hold it

• EMSF The sustainability screen is written into the mandate, not bolted on: the fund invests primarily in EM stocks meeting one or more of its ESG standards.
• Genuinely active. MSCI Emerging Markets is the yardstick, not the shopping list, so the manager can concentrate where the research points.
• Common and preferred shares are both in the toolkit, which matters in emerging markets where a company's preferred line is often the more accessible one.
• Run by Matthews Asia, a boutique whose whole business is Asia and emerging markets rather than a global shop with an EM sleeve.

• EMXF The "Advanced" label means deep screening: an index built on stronger ESG ratings plus extensive exclusions for controversial business activities, not one or two token cuts.ishares.com
• The index caps each issuer at 5%, which matters in emerging markets, where plain cap-weighted portfolios lean hard on a few chip and tech behemoths.ishares.com
• 0.16% a year is modest for a heavily screened fund, and it sits below the typical expense ratio in its emerging-markets peer group.
• Roughly 600 large and mid caps across emerging markets: the screens trim the field without collapsing it into a concentrated handful of names.

Worth knowing

• EMSF At 0.79% a year, the fee sits above the typical active EM ETF, and the category's cheapest well-built options (AVEM, AVSE, DFEM) charge 0.33% to 0.39%.
• A small fund that trades lightly. Spreads tend to be wider than in the category's household names, so order type does real work here.
• Launched in 2023, so the record is short by design, and distributions arrive once or twice a year rather than monthly.

• EMXF Unscreened emerging-markets trackers such as VWO and SCHE run at a fraction of this expense ratio. The screening is what you are paying for.
• A smaller, thinly traded fund. Spreads can widen, so the price on screen and the price you get are not always the same thing.
• Cutting whole slices of the emerging-markets universe means this portfolio can look and behave quite differently from a standard EM index, in either direction.

Full EMSF profile⁠

Full EMXF profile⁠