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WisdomTree To Close Ten ETFs
January 29, 2010 2:17 am
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WisdomTree Investments announced today that it will close 10 of its 52 exchange-traded funds, as it joins a host of ETF issuers looking to streamline their product lineups. The ETFs account for just 3 percent of WisdomTree’s $6 billion in assets under management. They are:
The last day of trading for the funds will be March 24. Shareholders of record on that day will have the funds redeemed for cash at net asset value, minus a small amount of closing costs. “WisdomTree is very much a growth company, always innovating and looking to do many things,” said Bruce Lavine, president and COO of WisdomTree. “It is important for us to create capacity inside the firm to execute on those innovative, exciting ideas. We took a hard look at some of the funds that had been out there for a while, talked to shareholders, and decided it was in the best interests of shareholders to move onto other areas of greater interest to customers.” The company said that some of the funds being closed were nearly redundant with other offerings in the WisdomTree lineup, while others faced established or growing competition. “We looked at where we were differentiated,” said Luciano Siracusano, head of sales for WisdomTree. “In international sector funds, for instance, we were originally first to market. But we’re not the only ones on the market today. We decided to focus on our areas of strength and on the areas where we are most differentiated, while closing funds with lower volume and lower assets.” WisdomTree is keeping its most popular international sector funds alive, including its REIT and basic materials funds. The closings did not cover all of WisdomTree’s smallest funds. For instance, the WisdomTree Dreyfus South African Rand ETF (NYSEArca: SZR) has just $11 million in assets. But WisdomTree said that it is committed to those funds—and to its broader product lineup—and sees no additional closures in the future. “We are committed to the entire product lineup for the foreseeable future,” said Lavine, of the currency funds. “We think we’re very early in the currency category, for instance. The important thing is that, in something like the ETF fund closings have become commonplace over the past few years. More than 100 closures took place over the last two years. Many experts expect record ETF fund closures, as there remain an extraordinary number of ETFs with very low assets. As of Dec. 31, 154 ETFs had less than $10 million in assets.
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