The team at a Garden State fund firm is preparing to shutter a four-year-old, actively managed fixed income ETF, even as another shop is poised to adopt the rest of the fund family.

Samuel Ralph "Sam" Masucci III ETF Managers Group LLC Founder

Yesterday, the folks at ETF Managers Group LLC filed to liquidate the ETFMG Sit Ultra Short ETF (VALT on the NYSE Arca, Inc.). August 28 is the target liquidation date, per the filing, with proceeds expected to be sent on August 29 to the fund's shareholders.

The ETFMG team explains that the planned liquidation is "based on an ongoing review of market demand." The liquidiation is scheduled for two weeks after Foreside Fund Services LLC takes over from ETFMG Financial LLC as distributor of VALT and ETFMG's other funds on August 14, in advance of Amplify ETFs' expected mass adoption of ETFMG's ETFs in Q4 2023. (Foreside already distributes Amplify's existing ETFs.)

VALT's liquidation will also come about a month after the resignation of ETFMG's founder from a host of ETFMG-related positions.

VALT is a series of ETFMG Managers Trust. The fund's inception date was October 8, 2019, and by July 2021 it had surpassed $200 million in AUM, but it has since shrunk by nearly two-thirds; the fund now has $69.091 million in AUM. Its expense ratio is 30 basis points.

ETFMG serves as VALT's investment advisor, and Sit Fixed Income Advisors II, LLC (Sit Investment [profile]) serves as the fund's subadvisor. Since launch, VALT has been PMed by the same Sit trio: Marc Book, vice president and portfolio manager; Bryce Doty, senior VP and senior PM; and Christopher Rasmussen, VP and PM.

The liquidating fund's other service providers include: Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP as counsel; U.S. Bank National Assocation as custodian; U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, LLC (dba U.S. Bank Global Fund Services) as dividend disbursing agent and transfer agent; and WithumSmith+Brown, PC as independent accounting firm. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE