Key Highlights

  • The fund holds 195 smaller Australian companies, with the top ten at only 18.95%.
  • Basic Materials holds 29.95% against 18.91% for the category, and Technology 7.60% against 13.21%.
  • The management fee is 0.30% and the fund size is $1.17 billion.
  • The July 2026 distribution of $2.196 is lower than the $3.980 paid in July 2025.

Vanguard MSCI Australian Small Companies Index ETF (ASX:VSO) tracks a small-capitalisation index that generally consists of the smaller companies on the Australian equity market, targeting coverage of around 14% of free float-adjusted market capitalisation. The fund was admitted to the ASX on 26 May 2011 and last traded at $71.28 on 13 October 2026. It reports a fund size of $1.17 billion.

Detail

Information

Ticker

ASX:VSO

Fund

Vanguard MSCI Australian Small Companies Index ETF

Category

Equity Australia Mid/Small Blend

Benchmark

MSCI Australia Small Cap GR LCL

Fund size

$1.17 billion

Management fee

0.30%

Total holdings

195

ASX admission date

26 May 2011

Holdings

The ten largest positions represent 18.95% of the fund. BlueScope Steel leads at 2.38%, followed by ALS (1.97%), Mineral Resources (1.96%), Sandfire Resources (1.87%) and Stockland (1.85%). NEXTDC (1.84%), Orica (1.80%), Ampol (1.79%), CAR Group (1.74%) and Technology One (1.68%) complete the list.

Reported turnover is 12.79%.

Sector and size mix

Basic Materials holds 29.95%, Industrials 11.69% against 15.60% and Real Estate 11.65% against 6.67%. Financial Services is 9.48%, Healthcare 8.24% and Energy 6.96%. Consumer Cyclical is 6.46%, below the 11.26% category weighting.

Companies above $1 billion in market capitalisation represent 81.04%, those between $500 million and $1 billion 18.43% and those below $500 million 0.53%. Australia accounts for 98.42% of the fund.

Fee, risk and distributions

The management fee is 0.30% a year. The fund reports a beta of 0.89 and a standard deviation of 13.55. The final distribution of $2.196 per unit had an ex-date of 1 July 2026, a record date of 2 July and payment on 16 July, equal to an annual yield of 4.85%.

That is higher than the $1.296 paid in January 2026, $1.386 in January 2025 and $0.761 in July 2024, but lower than the $3.980 paid in July 2025.

Category classification and liquidity

Morningstar places the fund in the Equity Australia Mid/Small Blend category, which covers funds investing primarily in small- to mid-sized Australian companies, defined as stocks in the bottom 30% of the Australian equity market by capitalisation, with the blend style applied where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate.

Liquidity indicators add a further view. There are 16,310,160 units on issue, and average daily trading volume is 29,323 units. Over the five sessions from 7 to 13 October 2026, daily volume ranged from 13,200 to 49,000 units, with 49,039 recorded on 13 October while the market was still open. The bid-offer range stood at $71.00 to $72.65, and the day range at $71.28 to $72.29. These figures change through the trading day and reflect market activity rather than the fund's holdings.

Recent announcements

Vanguard lodged Outstanding Securities for September 2026 on 7 October, Final Distributions on 2 October, an Updated Estimated Distribution on 1 October and an Estimated Distribution Announcement on 24 September. The Annual Report followed on 15 September.

Final Takeaway

VSO covers smaller Australian companies, with a heavier weight in Basic Materials and Real Estate than its category and a lower weight in Technology. The 0.30% fee and a July distribution below last year's are part of its profile. These facts describe the fund and not future results.