Bailey McCann writes that AXS Investments continues to build out its platform of alternative ETFs through recent acquisition deals with Tuttle Capital and Change Finance.
Asset manager AXS Investments continues to expand its lineup. AXS has acquired Tuttle Capital’s ETF lineup, Tuttle filed for the change on April 1. Tuttle’s CEO will be joining AXS to continue to focus on portfolio management and trading.
The two firms have a natural alignment, both of them offer alternative investment strategies within an ETF wrapper. AXS is working on building out an investment platform designed to offer alternative style strategies in ETFs to both advisers and individual investors.
Tuttle’s lineup includes a range of ETFs focused on the SPAC market as well as SARK the fund that shorts ARK Invest’s Innovation ETF (ARKK). Tuttle’s lineup includes six funds in all, with approximately USD417 million of assets under management.
The news is the latest in a string of updates from AXS Investments. In March, the firm announced that its AXS Astoria Inflation Sensitive ETF (PPI) had acquired over USD50 million in its first 50 trading days. PPI is an actively managed multi-strategy ETF designed to combat inflation. It invests in a mix of historically inflation-sensitive stocks and ETFs, such as commodities, TIPS, cyclical stocks such as industrials, materials, banks, home builders, and others. The strategy is managed by Astoria Advisors Jon Davi.
Also in March, AXS acquired the AXS Change Finance ESG ETF (CHGX). CHGX joined the lineup as part of a deal with Change Finance. The fund has approximately USD115 million of assets under management. CHGX has a 5-Globe Morningstar Sustainability Rating, the highest possible rating, for ESG funds, and is certified carbon neutral. CHGX is a core ESG-focused equity portfolio with an underlying methodology that uses traditional ESG measures along with 125 specific criteria to identify companies that have a positive impact on specific sustainability metrics, such as land, water, air, biodiversity, people, and ethics.
“What we’re trying to do is bring select ETFs that align with our mission into the fold,” explains Greg Bassuk, Chief Executive Officer of AXS Investments in an interview with ETF Express. “We’re working with firms that are veterans of the ETF business and also have expertise in their strategy so that we can build out a platform that is aggressively bringing differentiated strategies to investors.”
According to Bassuk, both PPI and CHGX are examples of funds that are designed to meet specific investor needs and have shown over time that they offer unique exposures. “It’s very easy with ESG, for example, to put a strategy out there and call it ESG but it’s not that different from a general equities fund,” he says. “CHGX has already been through a vetting process and has an investor base that is passionate about sustainability.”
