The firm, which currently offers 61 ETFs across equities, fixed income, currency income and alternatives in the US, has assets of $34bn. It will invest $20m in working capital to fund the creation of a local European platform and operations to be led by ETF industry veterans Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski.
Through this platform, WisdomTree Europe, the firm said it intends to launch a select range of UCITS ETFs under the WisdomTree brand, while also continuing to manage and grow the Boost line-up of short and leveraged fully collateralised ETPs.
WisdomTree will initially own 75% of WisdomTree Europe, with a plan to acquire the remaining 25% from existing Boost shareholders at the end of four years.
“[This] announcement marks the latest in a series of measured steps we have taken to participate in global ETF market growth,” said WisdomTree chief executive and president Jonathan Steinberg.
“As the second largest ETP market after the US, Europe is a strategically important market and is the next natural step given our stage of development. Europe will represent our most significant international effort to date.”
To date the firm has set up a marketing relationship with the Compass Group to serve Latin America, as well as making some of its ETFs available for sale in Mexico and Japan.
WisdomTree said it believes Europe is poised for continued and significant ETF growth fuelled by constructive regulatory changes and growing customer appreciation of the benefits of the structure. It also sees strong demand for smart beta products.
