Eccles Street Event Driven Opportunities ETF announces plans to launch

By Toni Weeks

San Luis Obispo, Calif., Jan. 9 – ETFis Series Trust I said it will offer a new exchange-traded fund that targets high-yield securities, the Eccles Street Event Driven Opportunities ETF.

According to an N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the new ETF will seek to provide current income with a secondary focus on capital appreciation by investing in corporate bonds and bank loans with an average portfolio duration of about three to five years. The fund may also invest in equity securities, including credit-related equities or exchange-traded products, such as ETFs or ETNs.

In selecting debt instruments, the fund will focus on the following opportunistic credit instruments:

• Debt securities that the subadviser believes will be refinanced, often at a call premium, before maturity due to an identifiable catalyst within about a two-to-three-year period after acquisition;

• Debt securities trading below intrinsic value that will mature within about three to five years after acquisition; and

• Debt securities paying high yields that the subadviser believes are likely to be refinanced for the purposes of lowering borrowings costs within roughly two to three years after acquisition.

According to the filing, over 90% of the debt securities purchased by the fund are expected to be rated less than investment grade and issued by highly leveraged issuers facing business and financial challenges.

Michael E. Lewitt will be the lead portfolio manager, with Randall J. Shaw and Michael Kirsh as portfolio managers.

The ticker symbol was not disclosed in the filing.

There will be no shareholder fees. Management fees and total annual fund operating expenses have not yet been determined.

New York-based Etfis Capital LLC will serve as the fund’s adviser. Eccles Street Asset Management, LLC will be the subadviser.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.