Popular and innovative exchange traded fund (ETF) provider Claymore has struck a deal with globally diversified institutional manager Guggenheim Partners.

Guggenheim Partners and Claymore Group have announced that they’ve entered into an agreement and plan to merge. As part of the deal, Claymore Group will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Guggenheim Partners. The terms of the deal haven’t yet been disclosed, and the deal is expected to close at the end of the third quarter after clearing customary regulatory hurdles.

Claymore President Christian Magoon said that his belief is that ultimately, the deal will help grow Claymore’s business, thanks to the trusted Guggenheim name.

“It will strengthen our business, because we’ll have the ability to leverage Guggenheim’s world-class institutional management and research in conjunction with Claymore’s use of innovative strategies,” Magoon says.

Claymore is a popular and thriving ETF provider in both Canada and the United States. In the United States, their ETFs hold about $1.9 billion in assets and share creation is up 60% year-to-date. In Canada, they have $2 billion in assets and share creation is up 90%.

Guggenheim is a purely institutional operation with ultra-high-net worth clients. The average account there is about $400 million. Now that the two are teaming up, it will enable Guggenheim to bring offerings to retail investors, as well.

Here are some other things for investors to think about in the wake of this deal:

• Is it actually done? That’s still up in the air. Investors may recall that when Barclays put the line of iShares ETFs up for sale, their first deal came with a clause that enabled them to solicit other offers. That ultimately ended in BlackRock winning the deal.
• Different ETFs? Claymore is known for innovation and creativity – they’ve got the Claymore/Delta Global Shipping ETF (SEA) and Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy (TAN). Guggenheim, on the other hand, is known for its work in the fixed-income space, and we may see more broad-based asset class ETFs come out of this, as well.
• More Activity? Claymore has been quiet so far this year. Now that this deal has been put together, perhaps we’ll seem them ramp up their ETF production and be more visible.

Tags: ETF Trends, Feature Stories, Interviews, SEA, TAN