Macquarie gears up to launch its own range of actively managed ETFs

afr.com:

One of Australia’s largest asset managers is set to give the exchange-traded fund sector a boost.

Macquarie Asset Management head Ben Way. 

Street Talk understands Macquarie Asset Management is gearing up to launch a range of actively managed ETFs, offering a listed-access point to its managed funds.

Sources said the funds would be sourced from Macquarie’s existing unlisted public investment funds, focused on listed securities rather than unlisted infrastructure or private equity.

The $870 billion global asset manager is also expected to hire a US-based head of ETF strategy to develop a Macquarie ETF platform and drive the launch of active ETFs in Australia and the US, before moving on to Asia, Europe and Latin America.

A Macquarie spokesperson confirmed the project but said it’s in its “very early stages”.

Active managers have been adding ETFs to their distribution playbook since Magellan launched the structure in 2015. Around 50 asset managers are represented across the ASX and Cboe, including AMP, Perpetual and AllianceBernstein, as managers turn to public markets for distribution over traditional channels and intermediaries such as investment advisers.

JPMorgan listed its first Australian ETF in November, adding two global equities funds to the ASX as the Wall Street giant sought to counter the surging flow of money to local passive index funds. However, gathering flows has proved tricky. BetaShares estimates that active ETFs, including unlisted inflows, have gathered $2.56 billion since the launch of the first active ETF. Over the same period, index-tracking ETFs have grown by $92.2 billion.

Further, only 20 per cent of assets in dual-class active ETFs – products that have been converted into active ETFs from