O’Shares ETFs has announced that it has agreed to a strategic transaction with SS&C ALPS Advisors, a subsidiary of SS&C Technologies, with AUM exceeding USD8.6 billion in ETFs and total AUM exceeding USD17.6 billion.
The agreement provides for long-term collaboration between O’Shares and SS&C ALPS. The ETFs managed by O’Shares will be reorganised into newly created ETFs formed by SS&C ALPS, subject to the approval of the Boards of Trustees of OSI ETF Trust and ALPS ETF Trust and of the O’Shares ETFs’ shareholders at a shareholders’ meeting to be announced.
The firms write that the strategic transaction is expected to enhance the distribution and growth of the ETFs, as SS&C ALPS is a larger ETF organization with greater distribution resources. This should benefit both existing and future investors in the ETFs, the firms say. O’Shares will provide the continuing ETFs use of the current target indexes under license agreements with SS&C ALPS, and O’Shares will provide continued marketing support of the ETFs following the transaction.
“This is a strategic move for O’Shares. The transaction with SS&C ALPS provides important scale and enhanced distribution,” says Kevin O’Leary, Chairman of O’Shares. “We will continue to work with their leadership and sales teams to support the growth of the funds in all markets across the country. The ETFs will continue tracking the proprietary indexes we developed that focus on quality and preservation of capital, which is important to me because they are core allocations in my long-term portfolio.”
“We look forward to working with SS&C ALPS and their larger organisation to bring our strategies to more investors and advisors,” says Connor O’Brien, CEO of O’Shares. “This transaction provides expanded distribution for the ETFs, and also creates potential for collaboration in developing more ETFs, building on our Quality and Thematic investment principles.”
