After decades of underperformance, growth stocks have surged since the Global Financial Crisis, and VanEck is aiming to make them accessible to a broader investor base through a dedicated ASX-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The VanEck MSCI International Growth ETF (ASX: GWTH) is set to begin trading on the ASX on 28 August, pending final regulatory approval, the ETF provider announced in a statement on Monday
An Australian first, the product extends VanEck’s long-running focus on innovative smart beta strategies in Australia, bringing the firm’s total number of ASX-listed ETFs to 46.
GWTH provides investors with access to a portfolio of leading international companies selected based on five growth descriptors, as measured by MSCI. The ETF combines lower fees with smart beta strategies that follow a systematic, rules-based methodology designed to deliver outperformance.
Commenting on the launch, CEO and managing director of VanEck Asia-Pacific, Arian Neiron, said GWTH will allow investors access to “dedicated growth exposure” for “passive fees”.
“Importantly, the growth factor is a diversifier away from the overheld companies, with Nvidia being the only ‘Magnificent Seven’ company currently included in the portfolio. Minimal overlap between GWTH, the international benchmark, and factor ETFs provides further diversification benefits,” Neiron said.
GWTH was developed by VanEck following extensive research and portfolio engineering, the CEO explained, adding that this process aimed to address deficiencies identified in existing global growth benchmarks.
“We observed that the traditional index often led to diluted growth exposure and style contamination, making it less effective for those seeking genuine growth factor returns,” he said.
“Our objective with GWTH was to develop a smart beta strategy that captured “pure” growth characteristics, and we believe that a disciplined approach to delivering growth exposure can overcome the style drift and capacity challenges often faced by active managers in this segment.”
Historically, investors have improved risk-adjusted returns by allocating to specific sectors, styles, sizes or themes because high-growth stocks are often under-represented in standard benchmarks. Neiron added that while large, established companies dominate headlines, significant opportunities for superior returns are frequently found in less conventional areas of the market.
“This manifested in the first half of 2025, where the highly visible Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft mega-caps took a back seat to lesser-known stocks such as defence intelligence company Palantir Technologies (up 492 per cent in the last year) and mobile advertising platform AppLovin (up 417 per cent in the last year),” he said.
According to Neiron, a smart beta strategy such as the one utilised by GWTH can overcome the style drift and capacity challenges faced by active managers by capturing “pure” growth characteristics and maintaining a disciplined approach to delivering growth exposure.
