Company Announcements

Overall four-star Morningstar-rated¹ fund was first broad-based emerging markets ETF to exclude exposure to China

Has attracted more than $1.1 billion in client assets² due to a decade of strong performance and investor demand

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 26, 2025-- Columbia Threadneedle Investments today is celebrating Columbia EM Core ex-China ETF (NYSE Arca: XCEM) reaching its 10-year anniversary. Launched in 2015, XCEM was the first-ever broad-based emerging markets ETF to exclude exposure to China. Rated as a four-star fund by Morningstar, it has delivered stronger historical returns than broad emerging market benchmarks for a decade.

XCEM—the oldest ETF in its EM ex-China category—has established itself as a cornerstone for investors looking to control their exposure to China, mitigating certain risks while still capturing the significant growth opportunity in emerging markets.

“We launched XCEM in 2015 as a way to address investor concern that the expected inclusion of A-share listed Chinese companies in traditional emerging market indices would uncomfortably overweight allocations to that economy,” said Marc Zeitoun, Head of North America Product and Business Intelligence. “We’re proud that since its inception, XCEM continues to satisfy a distinct portfolio need for investors who are looking for a more balanced approach to investing in emerging markets.”

XCEM is managed by Christopher Lo, Head of Research Enhanced Strategies, and Henry Hom, Senior Portfolio Manager. The Fund tracks the Beta Thematic® Emerging Markets Ex-China Index, giving investors broad exposure to emerging markets by measuring stock performance of up to 700 emerging markets companies, excluding companies listed or domiciled in China or Hong Kong.

“Considering the continued geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic risks that are top of mind for investors recently, the longstanding credibility of XCEM over the last decade remains just as important now,” adds Lo. “With over $1.1 billion in client assets, XCEM is a powerful example of the value that Columbia Threadneedle’s indexed portfolio solutions and investment expertise can generate for clients.”

XCEM has generated returns in the top 16% of Morningstar’s U.S. Fund Diversified Emerging Markets category for the 5-year time period. The Fund’s strong performance highlights the benefits that controlling exposure to China can have for emerging market investors.

Morningstar ratings and rankings ¹

As of August 31, 2025, XCEM has 332 holdings and a total expense ratio of 0.16%, making it one of the cheapest and most cost-efficient options for investors in the category.

Columbia Threadneedle currently offers 14 ETFs across the active/indexed spectrum. A full listing of our ETFs can be found here: https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/investment-products/exchange-traded-funds.

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2,300 people, including over 550 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage $654 billion of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.³

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP). For more information, please visit columbiathreadneedleus.com.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments (Columbia Threadneedle) is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.

The performance data quoted above represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Investment return and value of the Fund shares will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than performance data quoted. Shares are bought and sold at market price (not NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. Total Returns (Net Asset Value) are calculated using the daily 4:00pm net asset value (NAV). Through July 31, 2020, Market Price returns are based on the midpoint of the bid/ask spread for fund shares at market close (typically 4 pm ET). Beginning with August 31, 2020 month-end performance, Market Price returns are based on closing prices reported by the fund's primary listing exchange (typically 4 pm ET close). Returns over one year are annualized. Performance results shown reflect expense reimbursements (if any), without which the results would have been lower.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of a mutual fund carefully before investing. For a free prospectus or a summary prospectus, which contains this and other important information about the funds, visit www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/investor/. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Investing involves risks, including the risk of loss of principal. Market risk may affect a single issuer, sector of the economy, industry or the market as a whole. The fund is passively managed and seeks to track the performance of an index. The fund may not sell a poorly performing security unless it was removed from the index. The fund may not track its index with the same degree of accuracy as would a fund replicating (or investing in) the entire index. There is no guarantee that the index will achieve positive returns. Risk exists that the index provider may not follow its methodology for index construction. Errors may result in a negative fund performance. The fund’s net value will generally decline when the market value of its targeted index declines. Foreign investments subject the fund to risks, including political, economic, market, social and other risks impacting a particular country, as well as to currency instabilities and less stringent financial and accounting standards generally applicable to U.S. issuers. These risks are enhanced for emergingmarket issuers. Investment in or exposure to foreign currencies subjects the fund to currency fluctuation and risk of loss. Investments in small- and mid-cap companies involve risks and volatility greater than investments in larger, more established companies. The fund concentrates its investments in issuers of one or more particular industries to the same extent as the underlying index. Although the fund’s shares are listed on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active, liquid or otherwise orderly trading market for shares will be established or maintained. Active market trading may increase portfolio turnover, transaction costs and tracking error to the targeted index. The fund may have portfolio turnover, which may cause an adverse cost impact. There may be additional portfolio turnover risk as active market trading of the fund’s shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions as well as tracking error to the Index and as high levels of transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Credit risk is the risk that the value of debt instruments may decline if the borrower or the issuer thereof defaults or otherwise becomes unable or unwilling, or is perceived to be unable or unwilling, to honor its financial obligations, such as making payments to the Fund when due. Credit rating agencies assign credit ratings to certain debt instruments to indicate their credit risk. A rating downgrade by such agencies can negatively impact the value of such instruments. Lower-rated or unrated instruments held by the Fund may present increased credit risk as compared to higher-rated instruments.

For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating™ used to rank the fund against other funds in the same category. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly excess performance, without any adjustments for loads (front-end, deferred, or redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star (each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages).

Morningstar Percentile Rankings are based on the average annual total returns of the funds in the category for the periods stated and do not include any sales charges or redemption fees, but do not include 12b-1 fees and the reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions. The highest (or most favorable) percentile rank is 1 and the lowest (or least favorable) percentile rank is 100. Rankings for each share class will vary due to different expenses. Had sales charges or redemption fees been included, total returns would be lower.

©2025 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The Morningstar information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.

Columbia funds are distributed by Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc., member FINRA, and managed by Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC.

Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC serves as the investment manager to the ETFs. ALPS Distributors, Inc. (Member FINRA) is the distributor for Columbia Threadneedle Investments ETFs. Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc., (Member FINRA) is a marketing agent for the ETFs. ALPS Distributors, Inc. is not affiliated with Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

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Meghan Shields
Meghan.Shields@columbiathreadneedle.com
617.451.0739

Source: Columbia Threadneedle Investments