Magellan launches actively managed ETF



Magellan Financial Group has launched an ASX quoted version of its leading global equity fund and will offer it to the retail planning and investment sector as an exchange traded managed fund (ETFM).
The ETFM, Magellan Global Equities Fund, will be quoted on the ASX AQUA platform from 5 March and will be a listed version of the Magellan Global Fund which currently has funds under management of more than $7 billion and returns of more than 18 per cent per annum net of fees over the past five years.
Magellan chief executive Hamish Douglass said that ETFMs only represent a small proportion of the exchange trade funds (ETF) sector and to date most have been offered with fixed interest investments and not equities.
He said the ETFM would differ from ETFs and managed funds in that investors would be able to buy and sell units on the ASX and settle via CHESS with the fund being actively managed by Magellan and offering more efficient pricing and higher liquidity than listed investment companies (LIC).
"We believe the Magellan Global Equities Fund is at the leading edge of exchange traded managed funds with a disclosure regime that balances investors' need for transparency, with fund managers' need to protect their intellectual property, and investors' desires to transact in real time," Douglass said.
"This has been regarded as the ‘holy grail' by fund managers globally, who have watched the rapid growth of ETFs but have been reluctant under previous regulatory requirements to disclose their portfolio details on a daily basis."
He said Magellan had begun working on the product a year ago and was required to present its operating model to regulators to ensure it could offer a managed investment scheme structure that was also listed but did not have to provide daily disclosure of its portfolio holdings.
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