ETF Securities says their range of exchange traded commodities has attracted more than $1.7 billion in investment. The majority of the growth has been invested since the start of the year.
ETFS pushed through the $1.7 billion milestone in assets under management following the recent listing of six new oil ETCs on the London Stock Exchange in the ETC segment. These new ETCs now offer investors for the first time ever, the opportunity to gain direct and simple exposure to one-, two- and three-year oil futures prices in the Brent and WTI oil benchmarks. Investors now have access to an entire platform of oil ETCs nine oil ETCs tracking four different maturities and two different types of oil.
The demand for new ETCs is a result of significant investor interest in commodities and increased knowledge about commodities investing. Substantial demand from investors for more choice to different commodities and different parts of commodity futures curves has led ETF Securities to create new products, allowing investors to implement different investment strategies in commodities.
Because of the growth of the business, ETFS is continuing to expand its product development and research function with the recent key appointments of Danny Laidler as senior product specialist and Edith Southammakosane as research analyst.
Laidler worked in the financial services industry for 8 years, of which 7 years have been spent in product development for JPMorgan Fleming, F&C, Threadneedle and BGI. Laidler has worked as a product development manager for fund platforms in the UK, Jersey, Luxembourg, the Channel Islands and Dublin, which included playing a key role in launching a platform of UCITS III ETFs.
Southammakosane worked as an intern for Lyxor Asset Management marketing team in 2006 and for BNP Paribas Arbitrage back office in 2005.
Graham Tuckwell, chairman of ETFS, says, “ETFS are the innovators of ETCs and continue to be a world leader of ETCs. As at October 2007, ETF Securities has over 50 ETCs listed on five exchanges with over $1.7 billion in assets which shows our success in bringing a ground-breaking range of commodities to European investors. The speed at which our assets under management are growing says a lot about investor’s appetite for simple access to commodities. Investors have responded to our products and we will continue to bring innovation to the market place to meet this demand.”