State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Madison, has invested in the recently launched Harbor Osmosis International Resource Efficient ETF, marking the pension fund’s third such foray into exchange-traded funds issued by Harbor Capital Advisors.
The ETF’s subadviser is Osmosis Investment Management, a London-based firm that uses a quantitative approach to finding “resource-efficient” companies, a Harbor spokesperson said.
Kristof Gleich, president and chief investment officer of Harbor, said in an interview that SWIB is now a “substantial investor” in the ETF, which has the ticker symbol EFFI, but he declined to state the specific amount.
Gleich noted that EFFE was launched Dec. 12 and has amassed about $110 million in assets under management so far.
SWIB has previously invested in two other Harbor ETFs — Harbor Human Capital Factor U.S. Small Cap ETF, with the ticker symbol HAPS, in 2023 and Harbor Human Capital Factor U.S. Large Cap ETF, with the ticker symbol HAPI.
Gleich declined to say how much in total SWIB has invested in Harbor ETFs.
Chase Nicholson, senior portfolio manager at SWIB, said in a statement: "The Harbor Osmosis International Resource Efficient ETF uses an innovative approach to identify companies that have potential to outperform their peers and offer a risk-reward profile that fits favorably within SWIB's broader portfolio.”
Gleich said he sees more and more interest from institutional investors, including pension funds, in actively managed ETFs.
“ETFs are quick, cheap, efficient, they trade intraday and are easy to use in asset allocation decisions,” Gleich said. “There is an industry trend to which we have a front seat, ETFs displacement. The mutual fund story is well-known, but there is an emerging trend where the same thing is happening with institutional SMAs (separately managed accounts), providing even more of a growth opportunity for ETFs than we originally thought.”
SWIB has invested in several other ETFs, including ones issued by VanEck Associates, BlackRock, Invesco and State Street Global Advisors.
According to data compiled by Pensions & Investments, as of the end of the third quarter of 2024, SWIB had about $1.9 billion parked in ETFs.
SWIB oversees a total of $166.4 billion in state assets, including the $131.5 billion Wisconsin Retirement System core trust fund.
Harbor has a total of 21 ETFs with $2.5 billion in AUM. The firm has about $65 billion in total AUM.
SWIB could not be immediately reached for further details.