They Grow Up So Fast

On April 3, Fred Alger [profile] announced that its Alger Capital Appreciation Focus Strategy has gathered nearly $200 million as of Dec. 31, 2012.

On March 25 IndexIQ [profile] celebrated the fourth anniversary of the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Track ETF. IndexIQ claims the ETF was "the first hedge fund style ETF." The ETF now boasts more than $350 million in assets.

At the end of March DoubleLine [profile] crossed the $56-billion assets under management mark. Jeff Gundlach and his team launched DoubleLine in December 2009.

On April 3 AllianceBernstein [profile] publicly celebrated the three-year anniversaries of its four inflation-protected and income-generating funds: the two-star, $358.2-million AllianceBernstein Bond Inflation Strategy Fund; the four-star, $1.5-billion AllianceBernstein High Income Municipal Portfolio; the four-star, $780.5-million AllianceBernstein Municipal Bond Inflation Strategy Fund; and the one-star, $484.8-million AllianceBernstein Real Asset Strategy Fund.

Last month Trinity Fiduciary Partners' Epiphany Funds [profile] celebrated three anniversaries. The $14.1-million Epiphany FFV Strategic Income Fund and the $15.6-millionDana Large Cap Core Fund both turned three, and the $3.1-million Epiphany FFV Latin America Fund turned one.

Births

On April 4 State Street Global Advisors [profile] rolled out the SPDR Blackstone/GSO Senior Loan ETF, powered by the GSO Capital Partners arm of private equity giant Blackstone Group. SSgA claims that the new ETF is the first actively managed ETF "to provide exposure to senior loans." It comes with an expense ratio of 90 basis points.

On April 4 Westwood [profile] launched a trio of new mutual funds: the Westwood Emerging Markets Fund, the Westwood Global Equity Fund and the Westwood Global Dividend Fund. All three are PMed by the global and emerging markets team, led by Thomas Pinto Basto and Patricia Perez-Coutts. MFWire reported in November that Westwood was prepping the three funds.

On April 2 Montage Investments' Tortoise Capital Advisors [profile] debuted its Tortoise North American Energy Independence Fund.

On April 3 Global X Funds [profile] launched the Global X Nigeria Index ETF and the Global X Central Asia & Mongolia Index ETF on the NYSE Arca.

On April 3 Goldman Sachs Asset Management [profile] unveiled its Goldman Sachs MLP Energy Infrastructure Fund, PMed by energy and infrastructure team chief Kyri Loupis.

On April 3 Franklin Templeton [profile] unveiled the Templeton Emerging Markets Bond Fund, with fixed income group co-director Michael Hasenstab as lead PM. Laura Burakreis will also PM the new mutual fund.

Stadion [profile] formally announced the launch of the Stadion Market Opportunity Fund. In a previous edition of Stork and Reaper, it was reported that Stadion was adopting the fund from Aviemore Asset Management [profile].

On March 29 Trinity Fiduciary Partners' Epiphany Funds [profile] revealed that, on February 4, it launched the Epiphany FFV Global Ecologic Fund, PMed by Frank Morris and Samuel Saladino.

On April 1 Aston Asset Management [profile] launched the Aston/LMCG Emerging Markets Fund, sub-advised by Lee Munder Capital Group and PMed by Gordon Johnson, Shannon Ericson and Vikram Srimurthy.

Morningstar reports that BlackRock [profile] launched the BlackRock Disciplined Small Cap Core Fund, PMed by Travis Cooke and Ali Jahansouz.

On April 1, Waddell & Reed's Ivy Funds [profile] launched two new mutual funds, the Ivy Global Real Estate Fund and the Ivy Global Risk-Managed Real Estate Fund. Both new funds are subadvised by real estate securities investment manager LaSalle Investment Management Securities. LaSalle managing director and chief investment officer Keith Pauley, Stanley Kraska, George Noon and Ernst-Jan de Leeuw PMed the new funds.

New Outfits

MFS [profile] completed its rollout of R5 shares for 40 of its U.S. mutual funds. The share class is specifically designed for retirement plans [see article on our sister publication, 401kWire]

Pregnancies

On March 28 USAA [profile] asked the SEC for an exemption to launch the USAA ETF Trust and a suite of active ETFs [see filing]. The proposed family would include a Cornerstone Moderately Aggressive Fund, a Dividend Equity Fund, a Flexible Income Fund, a Global Managed Volatility Fund, a High Income Fund, an Intermediate Term Bond Fund, a Precious Metals and Natural Resources Fund, a Real Return Fund, a Short-Term Bond Fund, a Tax Exempt Intermediate-Term Fund, a Tax Exempt Long-Term Fund, a Tax Exempt Short-Term Fund, a Total Return Strategy Fund and an Ultra Short Term Bond Fund.

Morningstar reports that T. Rowe Price [profile] plans to launch the T. Rowe Price Global Allocation Fund in May. The new fund will include a ten-percent allocation to alternatives and will be PMed by Charles Shriver.

Morningstar reports that, on March 22, Principal Financial Group [profile] filed to launch active ETFs.

On March 26, Salient Partners [profile] filed to launch the Salient MLP & Energy Infrastructure ETF sometime this year. The new ETF would be part of the MarketShares ETF Trust and would be PMed by Salient MLP chief Gregory Reid and PM Frank Gardner.

There's Room For Everyone

Morningstar reports that Vanguard [profile] is reopening the four-star, gold-rated, $8.7-billion Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund to new individual investors. The mutual fund closed to new individual investors in March 2004.

Brain Surgery

Simple Alternatives has added Clark Jones to to the team managing the S1 Fund. Jones previously worked at Tudor Investment Corporation.

Morningstar reports that, on April 1, Eric Mollenhauer took over as PM of the five-star, formerly gold-rated, $11.9-billion Fidelity Floating Rate High Income Fund [profile]. Mollenhauer, an 18-year veteran of Fido's high-income group, succeeds the retiring Christine McConnell, who PMed the fund since launch in 2000.


Check back as we continue to update this column throughout the week.

If you have a mutual fund launch or product change that you would like to announce, contact the MFWire team at editors@investmentwires.com. 

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