John Hancock Investment Management on Nov. 2 announced the launch of two actively managed ETFs – including its first active semi-transparent ETF.
The two new funds – the John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core ETF and the John Hancock Dynamic Municipal Bond ETF – bring the number of funds in the firm's ETF suite to 12.
The John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core ETF is the firm's first active semi-transparent ETF, the release said.
"For the fundamental all-cap core strategy we saw a great match with this structure that intends to maintain the integrity of the proprietary research and the best interests of shareholders in the attributes of the semi-transparent ETF wrapper," said Steve Deroian, co-head of retail product at John Hancock Investment Management, in written comments provided to Pensions & Investments.
Unlike most ETFs, active semi-transparent ETFs don't publicly disclose their investments daily, said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, a data and analytics provider. "Generally, asset managers have launched active semi-transparent ETFs in an effort to protect existing shareholders of other strategies," Rosenbluth said, adding that propriety insights go into stock-picking decisions.
If an asset manager is leveraging an existing strategy, executives often "don't want to be showing their full portfolio for ETF investors and not their full portfolio for separately managed account or mutual fund investors," he said.
The new semi-transparent ETF is managed by Emory W. "Sandy" Sanders, Jr. and Jonathan T. White, co-leads on the U.S. core value equity team at Manulife Investment Management, John Hancock Investment Management's affiliated asset manager. The team managed more than $23 billion in large-cap value, large-cap core and all-cap core strategies as of Sept. 30.
The John Hancock Dynamic Municipal Bond ETF is John Hancock Investment Management's first municipal bond ETF, the release said.
John Hancock Investment Management's ETF suite had more than $5 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, according to the release.
