The fund heavily weights Netherlands’ premier global companies. The fund has a consistent positive total returns over its 19 year existence. The main drag on the fund might be due to the strong US Dollar and weak Euro. There’s nothing like getting away to a warm place in the dead of winter. Oh, the idea of heading south to the Caribbean to escape the slush, ice and snarled traffic. Perhaps, Aruba, Curaçao or Sint Maarten? On the other hand, you might get a puzzled look from your co-workers while they’re bundling up for their wintery trek home by announcing that you’re off to the Netherlands for holiday. The fact is you’re actually being quite accurate! Those aforementioned mentioned timeless, carefree, warm, sunny islands are actually autonomously governed members of the Kingdom of Netherlands . The country in northern Europe which might have first come to mind, Netherlands, is actually a forth constituent member of the Kingdom of Netherlands . The Kingdom’s reach doesn’t end there, either! Three other Caribbean islands Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are special municipalities and its citizens actually have voting rights in Dutch and European election! There’re two details that often confuse people: what’s the difference between Netherlands and Holland ; and who are the people of Netherlands? First, Holland is located in the central region of Netherlands. Second, the people of Netherlands are Dutch ! To put this in perspective, the beautiful cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Delft, Leiden and Haarlem are located in Holland, which is in Netherlands. Lastly, Netherlands is governed by a constitutional monarchy, with a bicameral parliament. The monarchy isn’t just a formality, either! King Willem-Alexander actively mediates in Dutch parliamentary politics. At this point there’s a good chance that Netherlands suddenly seems like an interesting place. You might even be asking yourself whether it’s a worthwhile investment. If that is indeed the case, there’s a way you can invest your ‘dollars’ in Netherlands through the BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK ) iShares MSCI Netherlands ETF (NYSEARCA: EWN ) . According to BlackRock … The iShares (NYSE: MSCI ) Netherlands ETF seeks to track the investment results of a broad-based index composed of Dutch equities. .. The underlying index is Morgan Stanley Capital International’s ( MSCI ) Netherlands Investible Market Index . According to MSCI this index … is designed to measure the performance of the large, mid and small cap segments of the Netherlands market. With 47 constituents, the index covers approximately 99% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in Netherlands… Although the complete list of holdings and weightings are proprietary information, does indicate the index sector allocation and it is charted below for comparison with the fund’s sector allocation. Data from MSCI The fund’s sector allocations are demonstrated in the pie chart below, and seem to emulate the index quite closely. Data from iShares This fund, like many of the iShares focused funds, has been long established having been incepted in 1996. The fund’s net assets total $169,880,091.00 in US Dollars. It should be noted here that Netherlands is a member of the European Union as well as a Eurozone member; hence the currency of Netherlands is the Euro. This is an important point. Without getting too sidetracked, it suffices to say that it’s likely that the US Dollar will strengthen against the Euro within the next few quarters. This means that the values of individual holdings will decline in dollar terms, even if the individual companies are doing well. This shouldn’t put off the long term investor, but its good practice to be aware of the currency risks, at least in the near term. The fund has 6.8 million shares outstanding, is marginable and has a reasonably good 20 day average volume of over 77,000 shares per trading session. The fund is passively managed and management fees are slight higher than the industry average 0.44%, totaling 0.48%. The present annualized yield is given as 2.47% and the fund is currently trading at a 0.48% premium to NAV. The fund’s P/E ratio is given as 23.64% and a price to book value multiple of 2.14. The total number of holding is 48, which includes a small cash/derivatives holding. A quick overview of the major holdings with some key metrics, in order of sector weightings is presented below, starting with Consumer Staples. Although there are several ways to measure a company’s financial stability, the ‘Quick Ratio’ is included when available. In brief, Investopedia defines the ” Quick Ratio ” as … an indicator of a company’s short-term liquidity… …a company’s ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets … … a quick ratio of 1.5 means that a company has $1.50 of liquid assets available to cover each $1 of current liabilities… Ah! Before continuing, please note that you will often see the Dutch word ” Koninklijke” preceding the company name or brand. It’s equivalent to “Royal Dutch”, like in ‘ Royal Dutch Shell ‘ (NYSE: RDS.A ) Consumer Staples 32.0171% Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business Unilever UL 19.074% 3.05% 41.40% $131.00 0.47 Personal care, foods, refreshments, home care with 400 brand names. Services over 190 countries globally. On par with other global giants, Nestles (OTC: OTCPK:NSRGF ), Proctor and Gamble (NYSE: PG ) and the like. Heineken OTCQX:HEINY 5.439% 1.49% 33.42% $52.321 0.55 Beer brewing with over 50 brand names and global distribution in 75 countries Koninklijke Ahold OTCQX:AHODF 4.7393% 2.50% 50.53% of EPS $14.54 0.65 Food retail brands and Supermarkets in the USA New England area, Netherlands, and Czech Republic; total stores number, approximately, 3200 Heineken Holdings OTCQX:HKHHF 2.0859 1.62% 33.33% $19.11 0.55 Holding 50.005% of Heineken; the holding company segments and manages the Heineken brands by geographical region. There are in addition, three smaller Consumer Staple holdings accounting for 0.6789% of the fund’s total holdings. They are Corbion ( OTCPK:CSNVY ) , 0.3648% of the fund, providing bio-based food additives, emulsifiers, frozen doughs and vitamin premixes; Koninklijke Wessanen ( OTC:KJWNF ) at 0.2069%, which manufactures and markets organic food products, spreads, honeys, cereals, and dietary solutions; Amsterdam Commodities ( OTC:ACNFF ) at 0.1072%, which trades, transports and distributes agricultural products. All three companies contribute to the fund’s overall dividend. There are 9 financial holdings. The smaller holdings: Wereldhave ( OTC:WRDEF ) at 0.6159%; Eurocommercial Properties (Amsterdam: SIPFC) 0.5529% ; Vastned Retail REIT ( OTC:VSNDF ) 0.231%; NSI ( OTCPK:NIUWF ) 0.1405%, all totaling 1.3998% of the fund’s total holdings, are REITS. Delta Lloyd ( OTCPK:DLLLY ) 0.4364% and Binckbank ( OTC:BINCY ) 0.1274% provide traditional banking services, annuities, manage pension funds and online banking. All of the above contribute to the fund’s overall dividends. The lion’s share of financial holdings, at 19.2501%, is summarized below. Financials 21.3515% Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business ING Group ING 14.3798% 2.18% 35.20% $48.335 NA A global player in banking, providing global retail service, investing, insurance as well as commercial service Aegon AEG 2.8773% 4.10% 63.78% $11.42% NA Insurance, pension management, Europe, North, Central and South Americas, U.K.; Expanding into Central and Eastern Europe and Asia NN Group OTC:NNGPF 1.9903% 3.49% NA $9.17 NA Insurance, investment management, annuities, reinsurance. Europe and Asia The fund holds 13 industrials, however, the top four account for over 10% of the fund’s holdings and well over 75% of the total industrial holdings. Industrial 13.6886% Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business Koninklijke Philips PHG 6.5413% 3.28% 154.09% $23.81 0.86 Called ‘Philips’ in the US: Imaging systems, diagnostic imaging, x-ray equipment. Consumer lighting, appliances personal care products. Randstad Holdings OTCPK:RANJY 1.9134% 2.39% 56.95% $8.963 NA Staffing service, temporary and permanent, payroll services, outplacement, and workforce solutions. Koninklijke Baskalis Westminster OTC:KKWFF 1.0719% 3.60% 27.42% $5.09 0.37 Dredging and earthmoving, maritime infrastructure; management of oil and gas terminals TNT Express OTCPK:TNTEF 1.0647% 1.04% NA $3.827 1.20 Express carrier for documents, parcels and freight. Offices in 60 countries with a delivery reach in 200 countries globally Four companies comprise the Information Technology allocation. The topmost are most significant ASML (AMSL) and Gemalto ( GTOFF) accounting for 9.8634% of the fund and over 90% of the IT holdings. The smaller holdings are ASM International, (ASMIY) at 0.5154%, a manufacturer of wafer processing equipment and BE Semiconductor ( OTC:BESVF ) at 0.1657%, a manufacturer of semiconductor back-end and packaging equipment. All four holdings pay dividends. Information Technology 10.5445% Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business ASML Holdings ASML 8.5177% 0.79% 21.65% $41.945 1.77 Semiconductor lithography systems for integrated device manufacturing, flash and DRAM memory. Gemalto GTOFF 1.3457% 0.69% 19.53% of EPS $4.897 1.20 Digital security: mobile, machine to machine, transactions There are three significant holdings for the Consumer Discretionary and two smaller holdings. The smaller holdings are TomTom (TOMAF) , the well-known navigation equipment manufacturer, at 0.2914% and Accell Group ( OTCPK:ACGPF ) at 0.1167% of the fund, manufactures exercise equipment, particularly bicycles and bicycle components. Consumer Discretionary Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business Relx RELX 4.5121% 2.62% 65.37% $17.592 NA Information Solutions for science, medical and technical for professionals and students Wolters Kluwer OTCPK:WTKWY 2.7013% 1.68% 48.17% $8.73 0.69 Information software and services legal, business, accounting, medical and healthcare Altice (classes A and B) OTC:ALLVF 2.1537% 0.00% 0.00% $15.92 0.56 Media provider and services, cable TV, broadband internet, telephony Only four companies comprise the Materials Sector holdings, the two most significant are Akzo ( OTCQX:AKZOF ) and Koninklijke DSM ( OTC:KDSKF ) . The two smaller holdings are OCI ( OTCQX:OCINY ) 0.5894% which seems to be as much an industrial by way of its infrastructure construction and project management as well as manufacturing materials, particularly fertilizers. It is a subsidiary of Orascom Construction (Cairo: OCIC) . The second is Koninklijke Ten Cate ( OTC:KNKCF ) 0.1908% manufactures advanced textiles and composite materials. Materials 7.71% Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business Akzo Nobel AKZOF 4.4598% 2.24% 36.27% $14.74 0.90 Paints, coatings, specialty chemicals, marine coatings, metal coatings, vehicle finishes. Also food additives, detergents, cosmetics. Koninklijke DSM KDSKF 2.47% 3.32% 366% of EPS $8.21 0.97 Nutrition, vitamins and nutrients, carotenoids. Also performance materials plastics, resins, polymer materials There’s only one telecom holding, Koninklijke KPN (OTC: OTC:KKPNF ) at 2.9527%. KPN has a $12.61 billion market cap and pays a 3.51% dividend. The company is pretty much a broad based telecom service provider whose primary business is integrated information and communication technology for mobile, residential and business. The least weighted sector is in energy with three holdings each has a weighting of less than one percent. Energy 1.7472% Exchange and Symbol Fund Weighting Dividend Yield Payout Ratio Market Capitalization (in USD Billions) Quick Ratio Primary business Vopak VOPLY 0.7454% 2.29% 43.5% of EPS $4.57 NA Storage of oil products, liquid chemicals, bio-fuels and vegetable oils as well as shipping terminal to terminal. SBMO OTCPK:SBFFF 0.6601% 0.00% 0.00% $2.52 2.02 Offshore energy, floating production and mooring systems, terminals and service Fugro OTCPK:FURGF 0.3417% 0.00% 0.00% $1.37% 1.49 Geotechnical Interpretation services providing information of the Earth’s surface and subsurface. Geosciences and Surveys for the oil and gas industry The fund has a respectable track record, with a consistent distribution as well as positive annual returns since inception, the only exception to that is the -1.59% negative return over the past 52 weeks. Since inception the fund has a total return of 4.98%; over the past ten years, 4.74%; five years, 4.98% and three years, 9.98%. Hence, the fund has a pretty consistent positive return, over different time frames, over the life of the fund, with the exception of the past year. (click to enlarge) The fund has several real global heavy-weight champs with distribution in the world’s best performing economies, like the USA, the U.K. and Germany. Further, the fund is smartly structured to top-weight these premier companies. Hence, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the poor performance over the past year may be currency related , particularly when it comes to US Dollar strength combined with Euro weakness. Should the US Fed raise its benchmark rate, or the ECB weaken the Euro in the coming months this might present an excellent buying opportunity for the investor with a long term outlook.