Van Eck, the investment firm behind Market Vectors family of ETFs, is buying its way into Australia by acquiring Australian Index Investments in what amounts to a bet that the land down under will soon become one of the world’s most vibrant ETF markets. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Australian Index Investments, now renamed to Market Vectors Australia after the transaction, currently oversees close to AUD $30 million in ETF assets under management, Van Eck said in a press release this week.

Market Vectors Australia will continue to market and dispense ETFs in the Australian market. Those efforts will include the Sydney-based Australian unit’s six existing sector-focused ETFs. The company will keep its staff and Chief Executive Officer Annmaree Varelas, Van Eck said.

Those existing ETFs include:

• Aii S&P/ASX 200 Financials x-A-REIT (ASX: FIX)
• Aii S&P/ASX 200 Energy (ASX: ENY)
• Aii S&P/ASX 200 Financials (ASX:FIN)
• Aii S&P/ASX 200 Industrials (ASX: IDD)
• Aii S&P/ASX 200 Resources (ASX:RSR)
• Aii S&P/ASX 300 Metals and Mining (ASX: MAM)

“We hope to increase and improve investment choices available to Australian investors by building a full product line over time,” Varelas said, stressing that being associated with the Market Vectors brand of ETFs is likely to help in the challenges ahead.

As of now, the Australian ETF market – with 70 ETFs and about $5 billion in assets—is in an infantile state compared to markets in Europe and the U.S. But Van Eck sees huge growth potential in a country that is riding the China-driven commodities boom of the past 15 years to new levels of prosperity.

To put Australia’s ETF industry into context, the U.S. market has over 1,400 funds that together have more than $1.181 trillion in investor assets, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.

Van Eck’s Market Vectors ETFs and a few ETNs—53 in all, our “Fund Finder” shows—made up almost $25 billion of that U.S. total as of June 19, according to IndexUniverse’s “ETF League Table.”

“We look forward to expanding our global presence in a marketplace ripe with growth opportunity,” Lars Hamich, managing director of International Business Development at Market Vectors, said in the press release.