American Beacon Advisors, Inc. took a minority stake in ARK Investment Management LLC, the New York-based money manager that sponsors a lineup of unique, actively managed exchange traded funds.
“The thematic investment process and manager expertise of Catherine Wood and her team at ARK represent the institutional quality and enduring value we strive to bring to our clients,” said American Beacon CEO and President Gene Needles Jr. in a statement.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The ARK Industrial Innovation ETF (NYSEArca: ARKQ) and the ARK Web x.0 ETF (NYSEArca: ARKW) are ARK’s first two ETF offerings. Those ETFs debuted in September 2014 and were followed by the ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector Fund (NYSEArca: ARKG) and the ARK Innovation Fund (NYSEArca: ARKK) in October 2014.
Although all four ARK ETFs are equity-based actively managed funds, the firm is fully transparent when it comes to providing investors access to holdings on a daily basis.
American Beacon taking a minority stake in ARK continues a trend of active managers and other investment firms acquiring or making investments in ETF providers. For example, in May, it was revealed that Emerging Global Advisors, the exchange trade funds issuer behind the EGShares family of ETFs, will be acquired by Columbia Threadneedle Investments.
Related: ETF Industry Consolidation: Emerging Global Acquired by Columbia Threadneedle
Also in May, Hartford Funds entered 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.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) took a passive stake in Global X earlier this year.