PRESS ROOM
WisdomTree To Buy Majority Stake In BOOST
Friday 31st January '14
WisdomTree to enter European ETF market through a majority stake in BOOST
WisdomTree to invest $20m into BOOST in order to fund significant business expansion ETF market veterans Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski to lead build-out of WisdomTree Europe WisdomTree and BOOST product ranges will be developed to serve European Investors Europe is the largest ETP market after the US, with over $400bn in AUM
BOOST ETP, the award winning and specialist European provider of short and leverage exchange traded products (ETPs), is proud to announce that WisdomTree Investments, Inc. will take a majority stake in BOOST. WisdomTree is the fifth largest ETF provider in the U.S. and the eighth largest globally.
WisdomTree will invest $20 million in working capital to fund the build-out of a local European platform and operations to be led by ETF industry veterans Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski. Through this platform, WisdomTree will continue to manage and grow the BOOST lineup of short and leveraged fully collateralised ETPs under the BOOST brand. Additionally, WisdomTree intends to launch a select range of UCITS ETFs under the WisdomTree brand. WisdomTree Europe will be headed up by Co-CEOs of BOOST and veterans of the ETP industry, Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski, who between them have over 25 years of ETP experience. They will be named Co-CEOs of WisdomTree Europe.
WisdomTree launched its first U.S. listed ETFs in June of 2006 and is the only publicly traded asset manager exclusively focused on the ETF industry. WisdomTree’s range of 61 ETFs across Equities, Fixed Income, Currency Income and Alternatives asset classes has approximately $33.7 billion in assets under management. WisdomTree is a market leader in fundamentally weighted ETFs, currency hedged equity ETFs and actively managed ETFs.
2013 was BOOST’S first full year of operations and the company’s five best performing ETPs were also the five best performing ETPs on the London Stock Exchange . In October 2013 BOOST listed a range of 3x short and 3x leverage ETPs on Borsa Italiana, and in less than 3 months BOOST has gained over 10% market share in the ETP segment. The BOOST 3x Leverage Daily ETP (3NGL) was the best performing ETP on the Borsa Italiana for November and December.
Prior to founding BOOST, in December 2011, Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski held senior leadership positions at ETF Securities – one of the world’s leading, independent ETP providers and a pioneer in commodities – which they helped grow from start-up to 70 employees globally and $22 billion in AUM by 2010.
Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski jointly commented, “WisdomTree is precisely the kind of innovative, dynamic and entrepreneurial company we are excited to join - it is an ETF success story. We look forward to continuing to grow the BOOST ETP family under WisdomTree and we are pleased to lead the platform for WisdomTree’s European ETF plans.”
CEO and President of WisdomTree, Jonathan Steinberg commented, “We continue to successfully execute our growth plans in the U.S., the world’s largest ETF market, and this announcement marks the latest in a series of measured steps we have taken to participate in global ETF market growth. As the second largest ETP market after the U.S., Europe is a strategically important market and is the next natural step given our stage of development. Europe will represent our most significant international effort to date, and we are pleased to enter this market with an accomplished team”
WisdomTree’s Vice Chairman, Bruce Lavine, formerly the Head of iShares’ European ETF business, added, “We believe Europe is poised for continued and significant ETF growth fueled by constructive regulatory changes and growing customer appreciation of the benefits of the structure. For WisdomTree specifically, the demand for smart beta has never been stronger. The decision for us to expand in Europe is a natural one, and we look forward to working with Hector and Nik to provide clients with thoughtful local solutions.”