GII vs RBLD

GIIAState Street SPDR S&P Global Infrastructure ETF

RBLDBFirst Trust Alerian U.S. NextGen Infrastructure ETF

In short

GII Toll roads, airports, pipelines and power grids in one ticker. GII has tracked the S&P Global Infrastructure Index since 2007, an early entrant in the category, and charges less than the typical infrastructure fund.

RBLD First Trust's US-only infrastructure sleeve: roughly 100 stocks picked under Alerian's NextGen banner, quarterly distributions, and a shingle that has been hanging since 2008.

Stated mandate

GII The fund seeks to track the total return of the S&P Global Infrastructure Index. That index provides exposure to large publicly listed infrastructure companies across transportation, utilities, and energy infrastructure.

RBLD The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Alerian U.S. NextGen Infrastructure Index before fees and expenses, using an indexing approach.

Why people hold it

• GII Tracks an index of 75 of the largest listed infrastructure companies, screened for float and liquidity, spread across transportation, utilities and energy infrastructure in developed and emerging markets.ssga.com
• 0.40% a year against a 0.55% median for infrastructure ETFs. The cheap end of a category that often is not cheap.
• Live since 2007, so the record covers the financial crisis, a decade of low rates and the 2022 rate shock. It rates among the strongest implementations in its infrastructure peer group.

• RBLD Rules first: it aims to track the Alerian U.S. NextGen Infrastructure Index, so the lineup comes from published index rules rather than a manager's hunch.ftportfolios.com
• Roughly 100 names spread the risk, and its holdings mix is one of the stronger builds on a crowded infrastructure shelf.
• On the market since 2008, so there is a long, real-world record behind it, not a back-test from the last theme cycle.
• Distributions arrive on a quarterly schedule, the standard rhythm for an equity index fund.

Worth knowing

• GII IGF follows the same index for 0.37%, three basis points less. GII's own trading is moderate rather than heavy, so spreads count alongside the fee gap.
• Roughly 70 stocks across three sectors and several currencies. A focused, globally scattered book that can behave quite differently from a broad world equity fund.ssga.com
• Distributions arrive on an annual or semiannual schedule, so cash lands in lumps rather than monthly.

• RBLD At 0.65% a year it runs above the typical infrastructure fund, and well above broad peers such as IFRA (0.30%) and PAVE (0.47%).
• It trades lightly off a mid-size asset base, so spreads can run wider than in the category's household names, which matters most on big or hurried orders.
• "NextGen" is defined by Alerian's index rules, so the roster can look different from a classic utilities-and-toll-roads infrastructure basket.ftportfolios.com

Full GII profile⁠

Full RBLD profile⁠