Claymore Advisors has announced that the board of trustees of the Claymore/Raymond James SB-1 Equity Fund, a diversified closed-ended fund, has approved in principle its conversion into an
Claymore Advisors has announced that the board of trustees of the Claymore/Raymond James SB-1 Equity Fund, a diversified closed-ended fund, has approved in principle its conversion into an exchange-traded fund.
The board believes that conversion to an ETF structure should be in the best interest of the fund, benefiting shareholders by continuing to provide the liquidity associated with exchange listing while potentially reducing the discount to net asset value at which the fund’s shares currently trade.
The primary investment objective of the Claymore/Raymond James SB-1 Equity Fund is to provide capital appreciation by investing its assets in equities rated Strong Buy 1 by the Raymond James equity research analysts, and the fund is expected continue to pursue the same investment objective and substantially similar investment strategies. As an ETF, it would seek to track the performance of an index comprising the equities rated SB-1 by Raymond James.
The board plans to carry out the conversion through a reorganisation of the fund into a newly-created sub-fund of the Claymore Exchange-Traded Fund Trust, subject to formal approval by the board of trustees and by shareholders. A proposal to convert the fund into an ETF will be submitted to the annual meeting of shareholders, which is scheduled to be held by August 29.
Raymond James & Associates, the fund’s sub-adviser, is a subsidiary of Florida-based Raymond James Financial, parent of a group active in businesses including brokerage, trading, investment banking, asset management and financial planning services and which currently manage more than USD35.4bn in assets for individuals, pension schemes and municipalities.
The group’s equity research department supports its institutional and retail sales businesses and currently publishes research on more than 600 companies, notably in the consumer, energy, financial services, health care, industrial services, real estate, technology and communications sectors.
Based in Lisle, Illinois, the fund’s investment adviser Claymore Advisors is part of a privately-owned financial services group providing supervision, management, servicing and/or distribution on some USD18.3bn in assets at the end of March in closed-ended funds, unit trusts and 30 exchange-traded funds.
