Van Eck Global: $2.3 billion of Holdrs exchanged by expiration date

By Toni Weeks

San Diego, Dec. 20 - Van Eck Global announced that all terms and conditions have been satisfied in the six exchange offers by its Market Vectors ETF Trust for any and all outstanding receipts of six Bank of America Merrill Lynch-sponsored Holdrs.

The trust has accepted all tendered Holders in the offers, which expired at 11:00 a.m. ET on Dec. 20.

A total of 33,756,917 Holdrs were validly tendered and not withdrawn, representing $2.3 billion, or almost 70%, of the value of the aggregate assets of the six trusts.

As previously reported, Bank of America Merrill Lynch entered into an asset purchase agreement with Van Eck Associates Corp., under which Van Eck commenced an exchange offer for six Merrill Lynch-sponsored Holdrs, offering investors of the Holdrs to exchange their receipts for shares of new Market Vectors exchange-traded funds.

The results of the exchange offer are as follows:

• 10,203,621, or 60.71%, Oil Service Holdrs will be exchanged for the Oil Services ETF, with the U.S. Listed Oil Services 25 index as underlier;

• 14,320,937, or 71.02%, Semiconductor Holdrs will be exchanged for the Semiconductor ETF, with the U.S. Listed Semiconductor 25 index as underlier;

• 5,369,069, or 70.2%, Pharmaceutical Holdrs will be exchanged for the Pharmaceutical ETF, with the U.S. Listed Pharmaceutical 25 index as underlier;

• 1,565,501, or 63.69%, Biotech Holdrs will be exchanged for the Biotech ETF, with the U.S. Listed Biotech 25 index as the underlier;

• 1,157,177, or 57.34%, Retail Holdrs will be exchanged for the Retail ETF, with the U.S. Listed Retail 25 index as underlier; and

• 1,140,612, or 74.52%, Regional Bank Holdrs will be exchanged for the Regional Bank ETF, with the U.S. Listed Bank and Brokerage 25 index as underlier.

Each tendered Holdrs will be exchanged for one share of the new ETF at an equivalent value. The newly created ETFs are expected to begin trading Wednesday.

D.F. King & Co., Inc. (800 290-6424) was the information agent for the exchange offer.

Van Eck, an investment management firm focused on global investing, is based in New York.

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