New Vaneck Uranium & Energy Innovation ETF (URAN)
Hi Guys In the last few days VanEck has released a new Uranium focussed ETF. URAN - Uranium and Energy Innovation ETF. What do you think of it? How does it stack up against URNM? Cheers, Nick
The Latest Q&A
Answer
Hi Nick,
Obviously, its early days with the VanEck ETF (URAN) only starting to trade on the ASX on Thursday but apart from this there are some distinct differences, with these two locally traded uranium ETFs:
- The BetaShares URNM ETF aims to track the performance of the North Shore Uranium Mining index, focusing on uranium‑mining related companies. Conversely the VanEck ETF (URAN) looks to give investors exposure to uranium and nuclear energy infrastructure sectors – not as specific.
- The URNM ETF costs 0.69% pa with the new URAN ETF not surprisingly a tad cheaper at 0.59% pa.
- If you believe the uranium commodity price will surge, mining/exploration companies will do very well, you might lean towards URNM.
- If you believe in a longer‑term structural shift towards nuclear energy, reactor development, enrichment, global decarbonisation via nuclear, then URAN may offer a broader way to capture that theme – we do, hence over time we might look at this ETF more often.
We don’t yet know all of the information around the URAN ETF but we do know both will hold Cameco (CCJ US) as their largest position but very quickly their holdings will vary as we bore into the detail.
We are bullish both, initially targeting another ~15% upside to fresh highs for the URNM ETF. At this stage we prefer the “go too” local uranium vehicle, the URNM ETF, but will keep a handle on URAN into the future.
