Mirae anchors US presence by buying ETF provider Global X

Feb 16th, 2018 | By | Category: ETF and Index News

Global X, the seventeenth-largest US-based ETF issuer, has entered into an agreement to sell 100% of its fully diluted shares to Mirae Asset Global Investments, an independent financial services business based in Asia. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

Taeyong Lee, President, Global Head of ETFs for Mirae Asset

Taeyong Lee, president, global head of ETFs for Mirae Asset.

Mirae has roughly $30 billion in ETF assets under management, but this acquisition will give it an all-important $9.3 billion footprint in the US ETF market. It already has a presence in Canada (Horizons), Australia (BetaShares) and Asia (Tiger ETF).

The sale will benefit Global X by giving it access to far broader resources, enabling it to continue to expand its thematic, income and international ETFs, and to broaden its distribution capabilities. It currently has 52 ETFs trading on US exchanges, the largest of which is the $2.2 billion Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ US).

The day-to-day operations of Global X will not change and it will continue to be run under the Global X brand.

“Mirae Asset has the client- and employee-centric culture we want to preserve, as well as the global expertise and distribution power we want to add to supercharge the future of Global X,” said Jose Gonzalez, co-founder of Global X.

“This merger is a landmark event for the Mirae Asset Global ETF business development,” added Taeyong Lee, president, global head of ETFs for Mirae Asset. “With Global X on board, we are now connecting one of the most successful US ETF firms to a prominent Asian-based global ETF manager, creating a powerful ETF platform.”

Three-quarters of all ETF assets sit inside just three players: Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street. This sale is another example of how asset managers are moving into and consolidating the fast-expanding ETF industry.

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