NFRA vs RBLD

NFRAANorthern Trust STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure ETF

RBLDBFirst Trust Alerian U.S. NextGen Infrastructure ETF

In short

NFRA Most global infrastructure funds stop at utilities and toll roads. NFRA's index goes wider, adding cell towers, data centers, hospitals, prisons and postal routes to the pipelines and railroads, across developed and emerging markets.

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

NFRA The fund seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure Index.

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

• NFRA Five supersectors in one wrapper: communications, energy, utilities, transportation and government outsourcing (hospitals, postal, correctional), across roughly 220 holdings.flexshares.com
• Charges 0.47% net (0.48% gross), net of a waiver through March 1, 2027, below the infrastructure category median.
• The index does real work: half of revenue must come from infrastructure, names must clear a $1 million daily-volume screen, and sector caps limit crowding. Rebalanced quarterly.flexshares.com
• Listed in 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays quarterly, it sits among the stronger builds in its 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

• NFRA Cheaper options sit on the same shelf: IFRA at 0.30%, IGF at 0.37%, GII at 0.40%. Each tracks a different index with a different definition of infrastructure.
• Broad cuts both ways: telecoms, railroads and postal operators share the portfolio with utilities, so this is not a pure regulated-utility sleeve.flexshares.comflexshares.com 2
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy for the category, which can mean wider spreads on larger orders.

• 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 NFRA profile⁠

Full RBLD profile⁠