ChinaAMC lists HK-US cash-flow ETF; HALO fund follows next day

ChinaAMC listed the ChinaAMC Franklin HK-US Equity Cash Flow Focus ETF on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 29 September, and the ChinaAMC HK-US HALO ETF follows a day later, on 30 September. They carry matching HKEX counter lines in Hong Kong dollars, renminbi and US dollars, and both track Solactive indices whose Hong Kong weight sits well above the territory's share of the constituent list.

The first fund's benchmark, the Solactive G2 Cash Flow Index NTR, holds 100 securities — 80 of them American and 20 from Hong Kong — drawn from large- and mid-cap universes. The screen leans on forward free cash flow and historical operating cash flow, excludes financials, and uses free cash flow yield and liquidity criteria to settle the final list; Hong Kong constituents must be reachable through Southbound Stock Connect. Weighting runs on trailing twelve-month free cash flow — 60% Hong Kong, 40% US — with an 8% cap on any single name and quarterly rebalancing.

The HALO fund's index is narrower: the Solactive Global HALO Select Index holds 60 securities split evenly between the Hong Kong and US universes, drawn from core resources and materials, supporting industrial and infrastructure, and digital infrastructure and technology. HALO stands for Heavy Assets, Low Obsolescence, and eligibility turns on six three-year fundamental measures spanning cash conversion, accruals, operating cash-flow stability, tangible assets, depreciation intensity and reinvestment. Free-float weighting gives Hong Kong 62% of the index against the US's 38%, subject to a 40% cap per sector and a 9% cap per security with semiannual rebalancing; the announcement describes it as Asia's first ETF on the HALO theme, a claim made by ChinaAMC and Solactive rather than an independently verified count.

Both indices tilt weight against their own census of names: G2 holds four American securities for every Hong Kong one yet sends 60% of the money to Hong Kong; HALO splits its 60 names evenly and still weights Hong Kong at 62%. The result is that 20 Hong Kong lines in one index and 30 in the other carry most of the capital, which suggests the 8% and 9% per-security caps bind hardest in that smaller cohort rather than across the US sleeve.

ChinaAMC's HKEX cadence matters alongside the products themselves. In August ChinaAMC listed Asia's first spot Solana ETF on HKEX, and the Cash Flow and HALO funds extend a run of listings built on freshly written benchmarks rather than tracked legacy indices. The free-cash-flow screen is not novel on its own — Pacer's MILK took a similar cash-flow lens into fixed income in August — but the Hong Kong-US split and the Connect eligibility requirement attached to the Hong Kong sleeve are where these two funds part company with the US-listed cash-flow screens.

Neither fund's expense ratio appears in the announcement, which leaves the HALO ETF's 30 September debut as the next thing to watch.