FlexShares Exchange Traded Funds has launched the Global Quality Real Estate Fund, an investment product that will track Northern Trust's Global Quality Real Estate Index by purchasing its underlying components.
Northern Trust, which manages and sponsors the 15 funds of FlexShares, invests in several countries in its index, including the United States (46.79 percent of all holdings), Japan (12.6 percent), Hong Kong (12.42 percent) and the United Kingdom (7.69 percent). Northern Trust started FlexShares last year to offer exchange traded funds, which are traded on exchanges in the same way as are stocks.
Flexshares' stated goal for the ETF is to "outperform traditional real estate indices via global exposure to listed, non-mortgage real estate investment trusts and operating companies that emphasize stable, long-term capital growth at an attractive price."
Recommended For You
FlexShares uses the Quality Score tool of Northern Trust, a proprietary tool that evaluates a company's financial strength and prospect for growth by using fundamental data and includes factors such as management efficiency, profitability and cash flow.
"Research shows that a high-quality, value-focused portfolio of real estate securities may offer attractive returns with less volatility compared to traditional capitalization-weighted global real estate indices," said Shundrawn Thomas, head of FlexShares, in a statement.
Northern Trust, based in Chicago, serves institutional and individual investors in 40 countries and had $846 billion assets under management at the end of September. FlexShares manages $6 billion in assets.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.