Exchange traded fund manager WisdomTree Investments (NasdaqGM: WETF) has launched a public offering of its common shares, which have taken a hit in the wake of the firm’s fourth-quarter results.
WidsomTree in a regulatory filing said it is selling 1 million shares of common stock along with nearly 13.4 million shares that are being sold by existing shareholders. The company will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of shares offered by insiders.
WisdomTree shares, which are listed on the Nasdaq, closed at $5.75 on Tuesday.
The offering also includes nearly 2.2 million shares that the underwriters have an option to purchase, according to the S-1 filing.
WisdomTree estimates the offering will raise net proceeds of nearly $6 million. “We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes,” it said in the filing.
The offering is “essentially an IPO because WisdomTree has never previously sold shares in the public market,” International Financing Review reports.
The stock dipped this week after the company announced quarterly financial results.
“Despite positive market movement and net inflows experienced in the fourth quarter, total revenues decreased 8.8% compared to the third quarter of 2011 primarily due to a 7.3% decline in our average assets under management,” WidsomTree said in the earnings release. “This average AUM decline in the fourth quarter resulted from $1.9 billion of negative market movement and outflows from our emerging market currency and fixed income ETFs in the third quarter.” [ETF Manager WisdomTree’s Shares Fall After Quarterly Results]
WisdomTree Chief Executive Jonathan Steinberg in a conference call this week said the company was in a quiet period and couldn’t discuss the share offering, or hold a Q&A session.
In a legal update, the CEO said Research Affiliates in December filed a complaint against WisdomTree alleging its stock ETFs infringe on patents that Research Affiliates received concerning fundamentals-based indexing.
“Flat out, we do not believe we are infringing these patents. We engaged two prominent patent law firms who have independently affirmed this analysis,” Steinberg said. “In addition, we believe these patents should be declared invalid.”
On the business side, WisdomTree said its goal is to capture 3% to 5% of ETF industry inflows on an annual basis.
The company is positioned to be a leader in the growth of the ETF industry, said WisdomTree Chief Financial Officer Amit Muni on the conference call Monday.
“We intend to increase our investment in marketing, advertising and sales,” Muni said. “We intend to incrementally add to our headcount, particularly our sales force and operations, and launch new ETFs to continue to diversify our product offering.”
WisdomTree Investments
