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US Firm Takes Majority Stake In ETF Provider To Tap European Market
WisdomTree Investments, the US-based exchange-traded fund firm with $34 billion in assets under management, is expanding into the European market by taking a three-quarter stake in UK-based exchange traded product provider Boost.
WisdomTree
Investments, the US-based exchange-traded fund firm with $34
billion in assets under management, is expanding into the
European market by taking a three-quarter stake in UK-based
exchange traded product provider Boost.
The firm will invest $20 million in working capital to fund the
build-out of a local European platform and operations to be led
by ETF industry veterans Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski.
WisdomTree intends to use the platform to roll out ETFs, using a
UCITS-compliant structure, under its own brand. In a statement,
it said it will continue to run and grow the Boost range of short
and leveraged fully collateralised ETPs under the Boost
brand.
WisdomTree has been a player in the market since 2006 when it
launched its first US-listed ETFs in June of that year; it says
it is the only publicly traded asset manager that only operates
in the ETF space. It manages a total of 61 ETFs across various
asset classes and has around $34 billion of assets under
management.
WisdomTree’s vice chairman, Bruce Lavine, is former head of
iShares’ European ETF business. He said in the statement that
Europe will see continued ETF growth, partly driven by regulatory
changes.
Among the details of the acquisition plan, WisdomTree will hold a
75 per cent ownership stake of the new WisdomTree Europe entity;
while existing Boost shareholders are to hold 25 per cent
combined ownership.
