Claymore Securities, an exchange-traded fund sponsor, intends to close and liquidate the Claymore/Delta Global Shipping Index ETF as a result of not having reached a shareholder quorum.
A joint special meeting of shareholders commenced for shareholders of record as of 13 November 2009 for certain Claymore ETFs and closed-end funds following the change of control stemming from the acquisition of Claymore Group by Guggenheim Partners in late 2009.
The fund’s shareholders were asked to vote on the approval of a new investment advisory agreement between Claymore Exchange-Traded Fund Trust 2 and Claymore Advisors, on behalf of the fund, as a result of the change of control.
Even though over 91 per cent of the proxies cast by shareholders of the fund were in favour of approving the agreement the fund was unsuccessful in reaching a quorum during the allowable period.
All of Claymore’s other ETFs and closed-end funds that were a part of the joint special meeting of shareholders successfully reached a quorum with each fund approving its respective new investment advisory agreement.
“Despite significant undertakings to secure the needed proxies during the allowable period, we were not able to obtain sufficient shareholder participation,” says William H. Belden, managing director, Claymore Securities. “The fund’s significant non-US shareholder presence plus the large number of shares held anonymously made it difficult to solicit shareholder consent.”
Claymore believes there is significant interest in the marketplace for a shipping ETF and it has filed a registration statement for a successor product, Claymore Shipping ETF, which will track the same index.
