State Street’s (NYSE: STT) State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the third-largest U.S. issuer of exchange traded funds, said it will split of its 10 industry ETFs, including popular funds such as the SPDR Pharmaceuticals ETF (NYSEArca: XPH) and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSEArca: XBI).
XBI is the third-largest biotech ETF by assets. Including XBI and XPH, four of the 10 ETFs being split by State Street are health care funds. XBI will be split on a 3-for-1 basis while XPH will undergo a 2-for-1 reverse split.
With a share split, the aggregate market value of shares outstanding is not impacted. The splits lower the funds’ share prices and increase the number of outstanding shares. The Record Date for the share split will be 9/8/2015 and the Pay Date will be 9/10/2015, according to a statement issued by State Street.
Other well known funds being split by State Street include the SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment ETF (NYSEArca: XHE) and the SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (NYSEArca: XTN). Both of those ETFs will be split 2-for-1.
“The success of our market leading sector and industry suite has not changed our continuous commitment to adding value to investors whenever possible. These share splits will make the 10 SPDR ETFs more affordable for investors through lower trading costs and provide greater efficiency in the creation and redemption process, which leads to the potential for increased liquidity,” said James Ross, executive vice president and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors, in the statement.
A table with all of the SSgA splits is included below.
Table Courtesy: State Street Global Advisors