The four-strong suite provides exposure to investment grade corporate credit across various countries and sectors and has a fixed maturity date of either 2026 or 2028.
They are designed to provide income throughout the life of the fund via coupon payments and will pay a final amount at maturity.
The new offerings are the iShares iBonds Dec 2026 Term $ Corp UCITS ETF, iShares iBonds Dec 2026 Term € Corp UCITS ETF, iShares iBonds Dec 2028 Term $ Corp UCITS ETF and iShares iBonds Dec 2028 Term € Corp UCITS ETF.
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BlackRock said the products provide “cost effective access to the corporate bond market, with the diversification, transparency, and liquidity benefits of ETFs”.
It said iBonds ETFs can be used by investors to complement savings accounts, in an easily understood structure, which aims to achieve a return through a combination of capital growth and the income on the fund’s assets which is derived from the underlying bonds’ coupon payments.
The funds can also be used to add scale to bond portfolios offered by investment advisors and enhance operational simplicity.
Brett Pybus, global co-head of ishares fixed income ETFs at BlackRock, said: “iBonds ETFs are designed to mature like a bond, trade like a stock and diversify like a fund, all in a cost-efficient and transparent ETF wrapper.
“Their fixed maturity nature aims to offer investors clarity into their yield expectations and investment horizon. Bond ETFs are increasingly being used as an alternative to picking individual bonds which can be costly for investors.”
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Each ETF holds a diversified basket of bonds, and can replace a large number of holdings, minimising the need to source and manage individual bonds.
BlackRock launched the first iBonds ETF in the US in three years ago, which have enjoyed significant demand, with inflows of $8bn over 2022, and $5.2bn over 2023 to the end of July.
By expanding into Europe via a UCITS ETF wrapper, the company hopes to take part in the success fixed income UCITS ETFs have already achieved in terms of asset gathering so far this year, with $28.2bn of inflows recorded to the end of July.
