One of the largest ETF issuers just got bigger. Invesco solidified its position as a leader in the ETF industry on Monday, completing its highly-anticipated acquisition of Guggenheim Investments’ ETF business.
The move makes a big splash in the industry – one of Invesco’s first orders of business was to slash the management fee on the acquired BulletShares ETFs suite from 0.24% to 0.10% effective immediately.
With this acquisition, Invesco’s ETF assets under management total more than $215.3 billion globally (as of Feb. 28, 2018).
Dan Draper, global head of ETFs at Invesco, told ETF Trends that the Guggenheim ETF business was attractive as it was complementary to its smart beta ETF offerings.
He said Invesco was excited to acquire some of Guggenheim’s best-known products including its fixed income BulletShares suite and the S&P500 Equal Weight ETF (NYSE: RSP).
“BulletShares is a really interesting offering,“ Draper told ETF Trends. “Many fixed-income investors, particularly now in a rising rate environment, actually want to have the benefits of an open-ended mutual fund, but at the same time like having a defined maturity…having an open-ended ETF but mature on a specific date.”
Draper said this allowed investors to determine a return of capital at a certain date in their portfolios.
“And that’s important, because when rates rise, it may become important to re-invest at those higher rates,” he said. “We’re really excited at bringing over the BulletShares technology.”
The Guggenheim Investments’ ETF business consisted of $38.8 billion of assets under management (as of Feb. 28, 2018).
Effective as of the close of business on Monday, substantially all of the Guggenheim ETFs have been reorganized into corresponding newly created ETFs of PowerShares by Invesco family of ETFs in a tax-free transaction.
A small number of Guggenheim ETFs are still awaiting shareholder approval to reorganize into PowerShares ETFs, and will be reorganized when that approval is received.
Guggenheim Investments president Jerry W. Miller said they were confident that Invesco was the right partner and platform to deliver continued value to its former ETF shareholders.
“With the closing of this transaction, Guggenheim Investments takes an important step forward in our growth strategy to focus on active portfolio management for both institutional and individual clients,” Miller said.
The CurrencyShares ETF product line, also part of the Guggenheim transaction, were transitioned to Invesco effective at the close of business on Monday. These products offer investors and institutions a convenient and cost-effective method of gaining potential investment benefits similar to holding foreign currencies.
For more information on the acquisition, visit www.invesco.com.