ARK Invest LLC, owner of ARK Investment Management acquired Rize ETF Ltd, Europe’s ETF (exchange-traded fund) issuer, initiated by ARK’s chief executive Cathie Wood on late Tuesday.
ARK Invest said the deal aims to introduce its suite of cutting-edge innovation ETFs, under the UCITS framework, also known as undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities, to investors across Europe, especially the United Kingdom, while also facilitating the sustained growth and expansion of Rize ETF’s thematic products.
The New York-based investment firm acquired Rize ETF from AssetCo, a UK asset and wealth management firm. AssetCo business is primarily involved in acquiring, managing, and operating asset and wealth management activities apart from other services.
The company said as the part of this agreement, ARK and AssetCo will partner to support the launch, on the newly established ARK Invest Europe platform, of several ETF products for AssetCo’s active equity asset management subsidiary River and Mercantile.
ARK, which is minority-owned by Nikko Asset Management, said the newly built platform will be named as ‘ARL Invest Europe’ which will function as a division of ARK Invest Ltd. In the new platform, existing Rize ETF index products will remain available and it will continue to research investment, manage portfolio, client service, marketing and distribution.
“We believe that the European ETF market presents a strong growth opportunity as new and younger investors continue to gain access to ETFs via the growth of digital platforms, and as active ETFs increase market share by meeting the demand for innovative investment exposures,” said Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest.
