Morgan Stanley Investment Management plans to offer an actively managed ETF that invests in floating-rate debt, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed.
MSIM launched its ETF platform in February 2023.
The Eaton Vance Floating-Rate ETF typically will invest at least 80% of its net assets in floating-rate credit investments, according to a summary prospectus dated Jan. 13 and filed with the SEC on Jan. 16. That may include senior floating-rate loans of domestic and foreign borrowers, debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations and other floating-rating debt, the filing showed.
Morgan Stanley, MSIM's parent company, completed its acquisition of Eaton Vance in 2021. MSIM's plan to offer an ETF that invests in floating-rate debt is "a big deal," according to Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, a data and analytics provider.
"Eaton Vance has a long strong heritage of investing in floating-rate bonds via mutual funds," Rosenbluth said in an email. "They are bringing their expertise to the ETF market further embracing the vehicle."
The fund, which will have the ticker symbol EVLN, will have an expense ratio of 0.6%, the filing shows.
An MSIM spokeswoman declined to comment regarding the proposed ETF beyond what was in the filing.
MSIM's ETF lineup currently totals 11 funds from three brands: Eaton Vance, Calvert Research and Management and Parametric Portfolio Associates, she said. As of Jan. 12, MSIM's ETF assets under management totaled $586 million, she added.
As of Dec. 31, MSIM had about $1.5 trillion in total assets under management, she said.
