EVX vs IGF

EVXCVanEck Environmental Services ETF

IGFAiShares Global Infrastructure ETF

In short

EVX Trash is a business, and EVX has been the way to own it since 2006: waste haulers, recyclers, wastewater outfits and environmental consultants, bundled into a compact global portfolio of roughly two dozen names.

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

EVX EVX seeks to track the MarketVector Global Environmental Services Index, which covers companies primarily engaged in environmental consulting, wastewater and drainage, waste management, remediation and protection, non-industrial air filtration, and carbon-capture, waste-to-energy, and biofuel technologies.

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

Why people hold it

• EVX Running since 2006, long before 'green' became an ETF marketing category. That's a real track record across multiple market cycles in a niche where most rivals arrived a decade later.
• The mandate is specific, not vibes-based: the MarketVector Global Environmental Services Index covers waste management, wastewater and drainage, remediation, air filtration, waste-to-energy and biofuels.
• At 0.55% a year, the fee lands right at the median for its infrastructure-theme peer group. You pay category rates for a far narrower slice of the market.
• Ranks in the upper half of its infrastructure-theme cohort on our review, with no structural red flags in the fund's setup.

• 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

• EVX Roughly two dozen holdings means concentration. A stumble at one or two big waste haulers shows up in the fund, with little else to cushion it.
• Thinly traded and mid-sized in assets, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than at the giant infrastructure funds, especially in fast markets.
• Broad infrastructure alternatives cost less: IFRA at 0.30% and IGF at 0.37%. They're wider nets, though, not a pure environmental services play.

• 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 EVX profile⁠

Full IGF profile⁠