This is a global infrastructure ETF that tracks the S&P Global Infrastructure Index. It holds large infrastructure companies in developed markets and select emerging markets on a market-cap basis, spreading its weight across three pillars: utilities, transportation and energy infrastructure.

It suits long-term diversified investors who want defensive characteristics, steady dividends and global infrastructure exposure in a single product.

It is a passively managed (index-tracking) ETF run by iShares.

The fund holds the constituents of the S&P Global Infrastructure Index to track the performance of large infrastructure companies around the world. The portfolio is spread across regulated utilities, transportation infrastructure such as toll roads, railways and airports, and energy infrastructure such as pipelines. Its defensive structure is a defining feature, with returns that come from regulated and usage-based cash flows.

• Global diversification across utilities, transportation and energy infrastructure
• Defensive character built on regulated and usage-based cash flows

Assets under management (AUM) stand at $10.8B, and the expense ratio is 0.37% per year.

Thanks to regulated cash flows, infrastructure companies tend to be less volatile than the broader market, and their trend is shaped by both the interest rate environment and the economic cycle. During periods of shifting interest rates, the fund's utilities weighting can cause it to move like a bond substitute.

Demand for defensive diversification and expectations of expanding infrastructure investment underpin fund flows. During volatile markets, money seeking relative stability tends to flow in because of the fund's defensive nature. Given its global exposure, currency movements and regional regulatory environments also affect its performance.

Global diversification and defensive cash flows are its strengths, while interest rate sensitivity and currency exposure are seen as its weaknesses.

Among comparison targets in the same global diversified category shown in the table, ETFs such as GUNR and GNR offer exposure to global natural resources and commodity companies and act as real asset funds, while ETFs such as FNDF, GSIE and INTF diversify across international equities in developed markets outside the US. These products differ in expense ratio, management style and asset size. For a sharper focus on the infrastructure theme, products such as GII, which tracks global infrastructure, PAVE, which focuses on US infrastructure, and XLU, which concentrates on the utilities sector, can also be considered as direct comparison alternatives.

Here are the points to review before investing in IGF. It is a defensive global infrastructure core holding, but interest rate sensitivity, currency fluctuations and regional regulatory exposure all call for thorough advance checking before you invest.

Rising interest rates and currency fluctuations are the main drivers of short-term volatility. With such a large utilities weighting, the fund is sensitive to the interest rate environment, and changes in each country's regulations and pricing policies can directly affect earnings.

It is a suitable core holding for long-term investors who want defensive diversified exposure to global infrastructure. If you want a sharper focus on US infrastructure, PAVE can be an alternative, and if you want single-sector utilities exposure, products such as XLU can serve that purpose.