Natixis Investment Managers announced its entrance into the semi-transparent ETF market, on Thursday, with the launch of three high conviction, actively managed US equity products. These represent a new vehicle for existing strategies that are currently available as mutual funds with well-established track records managed by successful investment teams at Natixis affiliates Loomis, Sayles & Co. (Loomis Sayles), Harris Associates and Vaughan Nelson.
Effective immediately, clients now have access to the following products listed on NYSE Arca, Inc.:
- Natixis U.S. Equity Opportunities ETF (EQOP)
- Natixis Vaughan Nelson Mid Cap ETF (VNMC)
- Natixis Vaughan Nelson Select ETF (VNSE)
Leveraging the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)’s Proxy Portfolio Methodology approach, Natixis’s semi-transparent active ETFs disclose proxy portfolios on a daily basis that closely track the actual portfolios’ intraday performance. This structure allows the portfolio managers to shield the identity of stocks on which they are actively trading, while still providing market makers enough information to offer competitive bids and asks on the ETFs. Natixis’s active semi-transparent ETFs give investors access to highly skilled active managers through a tax-efficient and lower cost vehicle.
“We are pleased to be an early entrant into the active semi-transparent ETF marketplace, where we’ve established three products that exemplify our dedication to providing investors with access to innovative and progressive investment vehicles,” said David Giunta, CEO for the US at Natixis Investment Managers. “At Natixis, we believe that actively managed products can produce better outcomes for investors, and by working with the NYSE, we can now combine those benefits with the many attractive features of ETF vehicles.”
“We’re excited to be among the first to launch active semi-transparent ETFs.” says Nick Elward, Senior VP and Head of Institutional Product and ETFs in the Strategic Product and Marketing Group at Natixis. He continues, “We thought it would be best to initially roll out some of our best strategies, and most of those strategies with just a wrapper in ETF to provide investors a choice – tax efficiency, interday trading, and other ETF benefits.”
Natixis Relief
Natixis’s entrance into the market follows the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s December 2019 approval of Natixis and NYSE’s joint application for exemptive relief from the Investment Company Act of 1940 to develop semi-transparent, actively managed ETFs that utilize the NYSE Proxy Portfolio Methodology.
“As the home of ETFs, the NYSE is excited to continue to drive growth and opportunity for the global investment community. Today marks an important milestone for the ETF industry, as Natixis, one of the world’s largest active asset managers, enters into the rapidly growing semi-transparent ETF marketplace,” said Douglas Yones, Head of Exchange Traded Products at the NYSE. “The NYSE proxy portfolio structure will allow Natixis and their affiliates to leverage the benefits of an innovative ETF wrapper without having to display their investment strategies to the public.”
The Natixis U.S. Equity Opportunities ETF is a multi-managed, diversified core equity product combining fundamentally driven growth and value managers. Loomis Sayles’ Growth segment is managed by Aziz Hamzaogullari (CIO and founder of the Loomis Sayles Growth Equity Strategies Team), and the management team of Harris Associates’ Value segment is led by Bill Nygren (CIO-US Equities).
The Natixis Vaughan Nelson Mid Cap ETF takes advantage of temporary information and marketplace inefficiencies in the mid-cap universe to find opportunities to invest in companies at valuations materially below their long-term intrinsic value. The fund invests in companies within the market capitalization range of the Russell Midcap® Value Index at the time of purchase. Chris Wallis (CEO & CIO), Dennis Alff and Chad Fargason are the named portfolio managers.
The Natixis Vaughan Nelson Select ETF invests in companies within the market capitalization range of the Russell 3000® Index at time of purchase and seeks long-term capital appreciation. The strategy employs sophisticated, proprietary analysis, valuation and risk management. Managers Chris Wallis and Scott Weber follow a research-intensive process emphasizing balance sheets and cash flow-based projections.
For additional information, please visit Natixis Investment Managers’ website at im.natixis.com
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