Hartford Funds is entering the smart beta exchange traded funds space with its acquisition of Lattice Strategies, the San Francisco-based money manager with an emphasis on risk-focused research and investment strategy design.
The deal, which was announced Wednesday, is expected to close in the third quarter. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Hartford’s purchase of Lattice “builds on Hartford Funds’ active management platform and creates nimble in-house investment and product development capabilities for future ETF strategies,” according to a statement.
Related: Lattice Launches Three ETFs
In March 2015, Lattice launched three ETFs, the Lattice Emerging Market Strategy ETF (NYSEArca: ROAM), Lattice Developed Markets (ex-US) Strategy ETF (NYSEArca: RODM), and the Lattice US Equity Strategy ETF (NYSEArca: ROUS).
In April 2015, the firm introduced the Lattice Global Small Cap Strategy ETF (NYSEArca: ROGS). ROGS tracks the Lattice Risk-Optimized Global Small Cap Strategy Index, which was designed with the idea “of improving return potential in small-cap investing and seeks to capture potential benefits of correlation and valuation differences across small companies in the US, developed and emerging markets,” according to a statement issued by Lattice.
[related_stories]“In recent years, other traditional mutual-fund managers have recognized the need to jump into the $2.2 trillion ETF arena, which has increased its assets from $1.7 trillion at the end of 2013. Many fund companies have also begun offering the popular strategic beta ETFs, either through acquisition or the launch of their own products,” reports Daisey Maxey for the Wall Street Journal.
Last week, Columbia Threadneedle Investments announced an agreement for Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC to purchase New York-based Emerging Global Advisors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal is expected to be finalized later this year.
Related: ETF Industry Consolidation: Emerging Global Acquired by Columbia Threadneedle
Emerging Global Advisors, the exchange trade funds issuer behind the EGShares family of ETFs, specializes in emerging markets ETFs.
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