Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which launched its ETF platform in February with six Calvert ETFs, is planning to offer five more ETFs, the first under its Parametric and Eaton Vance brands, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.
MSIM is the asset management division of Morgan Stanley, which acquired Parametric Portfolio Associates and Calvert Research and Management as part of its acquisition of Eaton Vance, completed in 2021.
Registration statements were filed with the SEC Monday for the Parametric Dividend Premium Income ETF and the Parametric Hedged Equity ETF as well as for the Eaton Vance Ultra-Short Income ETF, the Eaton Vance High Yield ETF and the Eaton Vance Intermediate Municipal Income ETF. Each of the ETFs will be actively managed, the filings showed.
"This marks the next step for Morgan Stanley, which could turn out to be a sleeping giant in the ETF market," said Bryan Armour, director of passive strategies research for North America at Morningstar Research Services, a Morningstar subsidiary. "Morgan Stanley was one of the largest asset managers still on the sidelines for ETFs at the beginning of 2023."
The February launch of MSIM's ETF platform was a much-anticipated move that came nearly 30 years after Morgan Stanley helped pioneer the ETF space. Morgan Stanley was instrumental in the launch of the World Equity Benchmark Series, country index funds managed by Barclays Global Investors. The funds, which eventually became part of the iShares franchise of ETFs, were based on equity indexes developed by MSCI.
"We are pleased to continue the development of MSIM's ETF platform that will launch ETFs across businesses, asset classes, jurisdictions and brands," MSIM said in a statement provided via a spokeswoman.
MSIM had about $1.4 trillion in assets under management as of June 30.
