Capital Group is going its own way in its plans to launch ETFs. Unlike T. Rowe Price and Nuveen, which also recently entered the active ETF space, Capital Group will not be launching clones of existing mutual funds. Nor will its ETFs, like theirs, be semi-transparent.
Unlike Dimensional Fund Advisors and JPMorgan ETFs, none of its ETFs will be conversions of existing mutual funds. (Some, not all, of those firms' ETFs are conversions).
Capital Group plans to launch six actively managed, fully transparent ETFs in the latter part of the first quarter of 2022. Five will be equity ETFs, including three focused on U.S. stocks, and one will be a bond fund ETF; all will fully disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
"The fixed income ETF will be a brand new core-plus strategy and is the first in what we expect to l be a suite of Capital Group fixed Income ETFs," said Holly Framsted, head of ETFs at Capital Group, in a company webinar. "The five new equity ETFs are designed to "complement our firm's existing mutual funds," said Framsted. "They will not be clones of the American funds."
Framsted, who joined the firm from BlackRock in March, explained that the "daily disclosure of holdings will give market makers the insight they need to lower the costs of execution" and are more tax-efficient than semi-transparent ETFs. They can use custom baskets for creations and redemptions, which allows the ETFs to dispose of appreciated securities in-kind and avoid recognizing taxable realized gains.
