New milestone for listings as BlackRock launches iShares ETFs on Cboe Australia

investmentnews.com:

A major milestone for Cboe Global Markets and BlackRock has been reached this week, as the listings exchange firm added the asset managers iShares ETFs to its Australian platform.

Chicago-headquartered Cboe has listings exchanges in the U.S., Canada, U.K, E.U., and Australia, and wants to build a global listings service and expand the investible universe for investors. Cboe currently lists 680 ETFs on its U.S platform, around 260 in Canada, and 180 in Europe.

BlackRock’s addition to Cboe Australia means it is the first firm to list its ETFs on each of Cboe’s exchanges. Three funds are available from Friday, with two hedged versions due to be added on February 26.

“This latest listing of iShares ETFs on Cboe Australia is a major milestone and a significant step forward to deliver on Cboe’s global listings vision. Cboe is the only exchange network in the world facilitating access to global capital and secondary liquidity by offering an efficient path for asset managers to list across our five listings exchanges,” said Dave Howson, executive vice president and global president of Cboe Global Markets.

BlackRock recently expanded its ETF proxy voting options, giving retail investors a say in how the asset manager’s shares are voted. The firm said that with an additional $200 billion in retail client assets now eligible for Voting Choice the amount of investments that can participate in the program totals about $2.6 trillion, representing half of the company’s index equity assets.