NEW YORK (Commodity Online): ETF Securities USA LLC (ETFS) has announced that the assets under management of the ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) now exceeds $70m as of September 16, 2009 after experiencing high trading volumes since launch. Total assets under management in SGOL and ETFS Physical Silver (SIVR) now stand at $180.5m as at September 16, 2009.

ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) began trading on the NYSE ARCA on September 9th, 2009 and the company believes that the inflows and trading volumes seen since inception indicate an increasingly bullish sentiment by investors towards Gold.

The objective of the newly listed shares is to reflect the performance of the price of Gold bullion, less the Trust’s operating expenses. The Trust is open ended and is designed for investors who want a cost-effective(1) and convenient(2) way to invest in Gold as well as diversify their Gold holdings.

The highlights of the new offering are:
Gold stored in Switzerland: ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) will custody all of its physical gold bullion in secure LBMA approved vaults in Zurich, Switzerland offering diversification benefits across issuer, custodian and geographies.
Physically-backed: ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) are backed by allocated physical gold bullion that meets London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) “good delivery”(4)standards.

Low cost : ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) expense ratio of 0.39% is the lowest priced physically-backed gold product offered in the US ETF market(3)

Transparent: Gold bars underlying ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) will undergo a bi-annual inspection performed by an independent external auditor. All Gold bar identification numbers will be published on ETFS securities website (etfsecurities.com)

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Commenting on the new product launch Fred Jheon, Head of Product and Business Development said: “We are very pleased to achieve another milestone and continue our aggressive push into the US exchange traded products market and offer ETFS Physical Swiss Gold shares (Ticker: SGOL) to investors. SGOL is now the lowest cost physically-backed gold product and represents an efficient way to gain exposure and diversify into physical gold vaulted in Switzerland. And as we build the business, we will continue to look at innovative and pragmatic ways to offer investors exciting new products.”

Commenting on the positive flows in assets, William Rhind, Head of Sales & Marketing for ETFS Marketing LLC, commented:
“The launch of ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL –“Swiss Gold”) represents another historic landmark for ETF Securities. We are very excited to be able to offer the first physical Gold ETF in the US market to be backed by gold stored in Switzerland. SGOL builds on the initial success of our first product, ETFS Physical Silver (SIVR). We’re delighted with the response we’ve had from investors so far. The feedback we’ve received from clients on the cost effective nature of the product and Swiss Gold custody has been extremely encouraging.

ETFS Physical Silver Shares are issued by the ETFS Silver Trust. And ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares are issued by the ETFS Gold Trust. (Courtesy: Businesswire)