InvestmentsMar 4 2015

WisdomTree to bolster current UK ETF offering

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WisdomTree to bolster current UK ETF offering

WisdomTree Europe, the European branch of the North American exchange traded fund business WisdomTree Investments, plans to bring another six to eight ETFs onto the UK market over the next three to six months, FTAdviser can reveal.

At present, the New York-based firm has 69 ETFs in the US covering equities, fixed income, currencies and alternative exposures, with some of those listed across the globe, plus further products.

In Europe the firm currently has six equity Ucits ETFs, which are listed on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and Xetra.

Speaking to FTAdviser, Hector McNeil, co-chief executive officer of WisdomTree Europe, said: “Our strategy is pretty simple. We’ve got 76 very successful products in the US so we brought six of them over, we will probably bring another six of those here - six to eight - over the next three to six months.

“I think its really going to be focussing on the value we can bring over and above the beta.”

Mr McNeil said the reasons for bringing the ETFs to the UK market was to provide more choice for investors.

He said: “The major advantage we have is track record, we are up against a lot of people who have no track record.”

“WisdownTree are interesting is because they don’t do ETFs [in a] similar [way] to everyone else. Since 2006 when they started they have focused on smart beta. They’ve always been smart beta focused so they’ve never really done market capitalisation.”

In January this year, WisdomTree announced its plans to take a majority stake in specialist equity and commodity exchange traded product provider Boost.

Boost was founded in late 2011 by former managing partners at ETF Securities, Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski, who helped grow the company from its inception to running $22bn (£14.3bn) by the time they left in 2010.

At present, under the Boost brand name is offered 50 short and leveraged ETPs and ETCs listed in Europe. Of those, 35 are listed on the LSE, 27 on Borsa Italiana and 18 on Xetra.

ruth.gillbe@ft.com