The iShares 2013 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series Exchange Traded Fund will mature and cease trading at the close of US market hours on 15 August 2013.
Leading up to the final maturity date, the individual bonds in the ETF mature, the fund transitions into short-term, tax-exempt instruments and cash. Remaining shareholders can expect to receive the entire amount of their proceeds in cash on or after 21 August 2013, subject to their brokerage processes.
The iShares 2013 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series ETF is the second of the iShares Municipal ETF Series to mature. The first in the series, the iShares 2012 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series ETF, matured in August 2012. The other five iShares ETFs in the series have end dates ranging from 2014 to 2018.
iShares has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would expand the suite of iShares S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series ETFs to include a fund with a 2019 end date. The fund is not yet available to the public.
The six 2013 – 2018 iShares S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series ETFs are designed to offer investors access to benefits of both ETFs and bonds. Like an ETF, each fund contains a diversified set of securities tracking a S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series Index, and can be bought and sold daily on an exchange. Like a bond, each fund has periodic distributions of income and a pre-determined date when the fund will close and distribute all proceeds out to shareholders. The funds are designed to provide a yield to maturity profile comparable to that of the underlying bond portfolio.
