While Reuters did not disclose a potential valuation for a Goldman purchase of IndexIQ, another recent deal in the ETF space could be a template. On Monday, Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS), the mutual fund manager that recently hired bond legend Bill Gross, said it will acquire VelocityShares for $30 million. [Janus Gets Into ETFs With Velocity Shares Buy]
VelocityShares had $2.1 billion in assets under management at the time the Janus acquisition was announced. On that basis, Goldman could pay less than $20 million for IndexIQ, assuming a deal is commenced.
Other well-known IndexIQ ETFs include the Index IQ Merger Arbitrage ETF (NYSEArca: MNA), IndexIQ US Real Estate Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: ROOF) and the IndexIQ Canada Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: CNDA).
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post.