497K 1 d310912d497k.htm NUSHARES ESG LARGE-CAP VALUE ETF NuShares ESG Large-Cap Value ETF

NuShares ESG Large-Cap Value ETF

LOGO

Summary Prospectus   |   December 13, 2016

Ticker: NULV Listing Exchange: BATS Exchange, Inc.

 

This summary prospectus is designed to provide investors with key Fund information in a clear and concise format. Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s complete prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and other information about the Fund online at www.nuveen.com/etf. You can also get this information at no cost by calling (888) 290-9881. If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank or financial advisor), the prospectus and other information will also be available from your financial intermediary. The Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, both dated December 13, 2016, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus and may be obtained, free of charge, at the website or phone number noted above.

Investment Objective

NuShares ESG Large-Cap Value ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to track the investment results, before fees and expenses, of the TIAA ESG USA Large-Cap Value Index (the “Index”).

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in this table or the example that follows:

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses       
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)       
Management Fees      0.35%   
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees      None   
Other Expenses*      0.00%   
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses      0.35%   
* 

Other Expenses are estimated for the current fiscal year.

Example

The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all your shares at the end of a period. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

1 Year    $ 36   
3 Years    $ 113   

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Index, which is comprised of equity securities issued by large capitalization companies listed on U.S. exchanges that meet certain environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) criteria. The Index selects from the securities included in the MSCI USA Value Index (the “Base Index”), which generally consists of large- and mid-capitalization U.S. equity securities that exhibit overall value style characteristics based on three variables: book value to price, 12-month forward earnings to price, and dividend yield. MSCI Inc. (“MSCI”), is the index provider for the Index and the Base Index. The Index and the Base Index are owned, calculated and controlled by MSCI, in its sole discretion. Neither the sub-adviser nor its affiliates has any discretion to select Index components or change the Index methodology.

 

NUVEEN   1


The Index identifies equity securities from the Base Index that satisfy certain ESG criteria, based on ESG performance data collected by MSCI ESG Research, Inc. ESG performance is measured on an industry-specific basis, with assessment categories varying by industry. Environmental assessment categories can include a company’s impact on climate change, natural resource use, and waste management and emission management. Social evaluation categories can include a company’s relations with employees and suppliers, product safety and sourcing practices. Governance assessment categories can include a company’s corporate governance practices and business ethics. The ESG criteria also consider how well a company adheres to national and international laws and regulations as well as commonly accepted global norms related to ESG matters. The Index generally excludes companies with significant activities in certain controversial businesses, including those involving alcohol, tobacco, military weapons, firearms, nuclear power and gambling, among others.

Companies that meet the ESG criteria are then ranked within their respective sectors based on their ESG performance score. The highest ranked companies in each sector are identified as eligible for inclusion in the Index until such point that the aggregate weight of companies in the sector reaches 50% of the market cap of such sector in the Base Index. For example, if the market capitalization of all consumer discretionary sector companies included in the Base Index totals $200 million, then the Index would screen these consumer discretionary sector companies, rank them based on ESG performance scores, and add the highest scoring companies to the Index until such point that their combined total market capitalization reaches $100 million. Companies otherwise eligible for inclusion in the Index that exceed certain carbon-based ownership and emissions thresholds are excluded from the Index. Once the universe of eligible Index components is established, MSCI optimizes the weightings of individual components to approximate the sector weightings of the Base Index, within certain constraints established by the Index.

In seeking to track the investment results of the Index, the Fund attempts to replicate the Index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the securities represented in the Index in approximately the same proportions as the Index. The Fund may sell securities that are represented in the Index in anticipation of their removal from the Index, or buy securities that are not yet represented in the Index in anticipation of their addition to the Index.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in component securities of the Index. In addition, under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in the securities of large-capitalization companies. Large-capitalization companies are defined as companies that fall in the range of companies included in the MSCI USA Large Cap Index as of the last business day of the month in which its most recent reconstitution was completed. The MSCI USA Large Cap Index is designed to measure the performance of the large cap segments of the U.S. market. As of November 30, 2016, the MSCI USA Large Cap Index had a float-adjusted market capitalization range from $5.8 billion to $590 billion, with an average market capitalization of $56.8 billion. “Float-adjusted” means that the share amounts used in calculating the Index reflect only shares available to investors, with shares held by control groups, public companies and government agencies excluded. The Index is reconstituted quarterly in February, May, August, and November. The Fund rebalances its holdings quarterly in response to the quarterly Index rebalance.

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

Principal Risks

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The principal risks of investing in the Fund, listed alphabetically, include:

Cybersecurity Risk—Cybersecurity breaches may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data, or proprietary information, or cause the Fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.

Equity Security Risk—Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur because of declines in the equity market as a whole, or because of declines in only a particular country, company, industry, or sector of the market.

Investment Style Risk—The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. In addition, because the Index selects securities for inclusion based on ESG criteria, the Fund may forgo some market opportunities available to funds that do not use these criteria.

 

2    NUVEEN


Large-Cap Stock Risk—Because it invests primarily in large-capitalization stocks, the Fund may underperform funds that invest primarily in stocks of smaller capitalization companies during periods when the stocks of such companies are in favor.

Market Trading Risks—The Fund is an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), and as with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of a Fund share typically will approximate its net asset value (“NAV”), there may be times when the market price and the NAV diverge more significantly, particularly in times of market volatility or steep market declines. Thus, you may pay more or less than NAV when you buy Fund shares on the secondary market, and you may receive more or less than NAV when you sell those shares. Although the Fund’s shares are listed for trading on a national securities exchange, it is possible that an active trading market may not develop or be maintained, in which case transactions may occur at wider bid/ask spreads. Trading of the Fund’s shares may be halted by the activation of individual or market-wide trading halts (which halt trading for a specific period of time when the price of a particular security or overall market prices decline by a specified percentage).

Service Provider Operational Risk—The Fund’s service providers, such as the Fund’s administrator, custodian or transfer agent, may experience disruptions or operating errors that could negatively impact the Fund. Although service providers are required to have appropriate operational risk management policies and procedures, and to take appropriate precautions to avoid and mitigate risks that could lead to disruptions and operating errors, it may not be possible to identify all of the operational risks that may affect the Fund or to develop processes and controls to completely eliminate or mitigate their occurrence or effects.

Tracking Error Risk—Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund’s performance from that of the Index. Tracking error may occur because of, for example, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund’s holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, but the Index does not.

Value Stock Risk—The intrinsic value of a stock with value characteristics may not be fully recognized by the market for a long time or a stock judged to be undervalued may actually be appropriately priced at a low level.

Fund Performance

The Fund is new and therefore does not have performance history for a full calendar year. When this prospectus is updated after a full calendar year of operations, a bar chart and table will be included that will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing the variability of the Fund’s return based on net assets and comparing the Fund’s performance to a broad measure of market performance.

Management

Investment Adviser

Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC

Sub-Adviser

Teachers Advisors, LLC

Portfolio Managers

 

Name

    

Title

  

Portfolio Manager of Fund Since

Philip James (Jim) Campagna, CFA      Managing Director    December, 2016
Lei Liao, CFA      Managing Director    December, 2016

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

The Fund is an exchange-traded fund, commonly referred to as an “ETF.” Shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange and can only be bought and sold through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (at a “premium”) or less than NAV (at a “discount”).

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in blocks of 50,000 shares or multiples thereof (“Creation Units”). Only certain institutional investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem Creation Units. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a designated portfolio of securities and/or cash that the Fund specifies each day.

 

NUVEEN   3


Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions are taxable and will generally be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or 401(k) plan (in which case you may be taxed upon withdrawal of your investment from such account).

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank or financial advisor), the Fund’s investment adviser or its affiliates may pay the intermediary for marketing activities and presentations, educational training programs, conferences, the development of technology platforms and reporting systems or other services related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

 

4    NUVEEN

NPM-ESGLCV-1216P