Perpetual keen to repackage vehicles as active ETFs

Perpetual/ETFs/funds-management/

4 March 2025
| By Laura Dew |
image
image image
expand image

Perpetual has shared it is keen to expand its active ETFs, especially in the US, as it resets its asset management distribution strategy.

The firm has announced a four-part strategy to improve its asset management, and one of these is resetting its distribution strategy. This is with the aim of improving client engagement and targeted initiatives to retain core investments strategies. 

Within this, a focus is increasing capabilities and the product set for the intermediary market in the US, including developing a holistic ETF strategy.

Commenting further on a results webinar, chief executive Bernard Reilly, said: “If you look at the US market then 10 per cent of its ETF market is in active ETFs. It is growing at a very fast pace.

“So this is an opportunity for us to repackage some of our existing strategies as an active ETF. We have an intermediary distribution function which has grown out over a number of years, and we want to be able to mobilise these ETF structures through that distribution channel.”

According to Morningstar, some 603 active ETFs came to the market in the US during 2024, far outpacing their index counterparts. 

Commenting on the “prune to grow” part of the distribution strategy, Reilly said work is underway on refining its product range and closing unpopular funds.

Reilly said: “We’ve undertaken some pruning work already on strategies that have been underperforming or are subscale and losing money. Those that are subscale haven’t attracted interest in the market to grow, so that’s why we would close those. 

“On the performance side, poor performance makes it difficult to sell a strategy. We’ve done some of this already in the first half. It’s been a combination of reducing funds and merging funds.

“If a strategy has performed poorly and is subscale, you will struggle to sell that in the future so you need to close that down. If it is poorly performing and is at scale, you focus on retaining the assets and turning the strategy around.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks 1 day ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

2 weeks ago

One licensee has lost 27 advisers in the past week, now sitting at zero, according to the latest Wealth Data figures....

3 weeks 1 day ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS