CI Global Asset Management Licenses Solactive Indices to Release Four Core ETFs
ETFs are increasingly becoming the incumbent in the global passive investment industry. In June 2021, global assets under management in index-tracking ETFs hit their new record of USD 8.66tn, which is merely USD 132bn short of assets in passive mutual funds. Building on the success of ETFs, CI Global Asset Management, a subsidiary of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX, NYSE: CIXX), has licensed four Solactive indices to provide its clients three plain vanilla benchmark ETFs, including a broad Canada ETF, and two ETFs tracking the largest 500 and 1000 US companies, respectively. Furthermore, to allow investors to participate in the performance of global healthcare companies, CI Global Asset Management released an ETF tracking the leaders in global healthcare innovation.
The COVID-19 pandemic required businesses to innovate on short notice, catalyzing business transformations in the entire global healthcare ecosystem. These challenges created new opportunities for healthcare companies, which, in return, utilized the growing awareness of healthcare and personalized medicine to push innovation in healthcare solutions further. CI Global Asset Management’s CI Global Healthcare Leaders Index ETF (CHCL.B) utilizes the Solactive Developed Markets Healthcare 150 CAD Index as its underlying index. The index includes securities of global large and mid-capitalization issuers from developed countries that are related to healthcare. For index inclusion, companies must be part of either the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap USD Index or the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Small Cap USD Index. A common industry classification selects potential constituents via their affiliation of the following industries: Medical Distributors, Managed Health Care, Hospital/Nursing Management, Medical/Nursing Services, Services to the Health Industry, Pharmaceuticals: Major, Pharmaceuticals: Other, Pharmaceuticals: Generic, Biotechnology, Medical Specialties, and Drugstore Chains. Additionally, Securities in the index universe are sorted by Free Float Market Capitalization in descending order.
Furthermore, Solactive’s Global Benchmark Series serves as the foundation of both the CI U.S. 1000 Index ETF (CUSM.B) and CI U.S. 500 Index ETF (CUSA.B). These ETFs track, respectively, the largest 500 and 1,000 companies listed on US exchanges. These indices utilized as the ETFs’ respective underlying are the Solactive GBS United States 500 CAD Index and Solactive GBS United States 1000 CAD Index. Eligible index constituents must be common stocks, REITs, tracking stocks or units and traded in the US.
The fourth index serving as the underlying index for CI Global Asset Management’s CI Canadian Equity Index ETF (CCDN) is the Solactive Canada Broad Market Index. The index aims to track various segments of the Canadian stock market, and constituents are selected and weighted according to Free Float Market Capitalization.
“The Canadian market has always been home turf to us, where we hold significant market share in terms of ETF releases and assets under management,” comments Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive. “Therefore, we are delighted to have four more indices utilized as the underlying for the launch of four more new ETFs in the Canadian market, which experienced a steep inflow of assets; more in the first six months of 2021 alone than in entire 2020.[1] We are very grateful for CI Global Asset Management’s trust in our services, and we cannot wait to provide to them more indices for future products going forward.”
“With the launch of this suite of ETFs, our lineup is even more complete and competitive,” said Roy Ratnavel, Executive Vice-President and Head of Distribution for CI Global Asset Management. “Working with Solactive, a renowned and respected global index provider, is integral to the success of these new ETFs.”
All of the four ETFs started trading on August 17th, on the NEO Exchange.
[1] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/canada-fund-managers-see-sales-boom-on-etf-and-esg-demand?context=search&index=3