Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has launched a new index for commodity investment with exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider Source.

The LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF will track the LGIM Commodity Composite Index, which has been designed to offer broad-based commodity exposure.

Graeme Dewar, head of strategy implementation at LGIM, claimed the company had seen increased demand for access to this asset class from pension clients.

‘Our solution has been to develop an innovative type of benchmark index that includes a minimum of three constituent sub-indices.

‘These sub-indices are selected using LGIM’s experience and core skill set to deliver a high quality, dynamic commodity composite index,’ Dewar said.

The ETF will combine physical investment in US Treasury Bills with a swap overlay in order to provide more consistent index tracking. As the indexes are not available to invest in directly, the swap will operate to replicate the returns on those indexes.

Source has appointed four swap counterparties, including Barclays Capital, Citigroup, JP Morgan and UBS, to diversify counterparty risk and the composition of the index.

Chief executive of Source, Ted Hood, commented, ‘Single commodity ETCs (exchange-traded commodities) are useful for investors who want to build a tailored portfolio.

‘But, like LGIM, we see the need for a well-constructed commodity index providing diversified exposure, at a reasonable cost and in a Ucits-compliant fund,’ he added.

The LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF, listed on the London Stock Exchange, has a management fee of 0.40 per cent per annum and an average swap fee of 0.45 per cent.

The indices included in the composition of the LGIM index are the Barclays Capital Commodity Index Pure Beta, the Citi Cubes Index Total Return, the JPMCCI Ex-Front Month Energy Light Index and the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index.