VanEck’s says its latest ETF, which started trading on the NYSE Arca on Thursday, is the first U.S.-listed ETF that provides comprehensive exposure to publicly traded asset managers focused mainly on the private markets.
To be eligible for inclusion in the underlying index of the new VanEck Alternative Asset Manager ETF (GPZ), a company must be “ultra-pure play,” meaning at least 75% of its revenue comes from private equity, venture capital, private credit, private infrastructure and private real estate, VanEck said.
At launch, holdings in the new ETF include Apollo, Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR.
The ETF’s introduction comes as investors and wealth managers are increasingly turning to private market strategies for diversification and return potential, which is causing the alternatives category to experience rapid growth, according to VanEck.
The trend is being driven by several factors, including growing demand for private credit and more companies delaying initial public offering (IPO) plans, VanEck said.
Pointing to data from HFR, Preqin and JPMorgan Asset Management, VanEck said alternative assets under management (AUM) have grown from about $7.4 trillion in 2014 to nearly $19 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2024.
GPZ is being offered by VanEck in response to client and investor demand, Brandon Rakszawski, Vice President and Director of Product Management at VanEck, told WSR.
“We’ve seen growing interest from clients and investors who want a way to gain equity exposure to alternative asset managers, and existing ETFs weren’t meeting their needs,” he said. “This idea is a great example of specific client demand aligning with VanEck’s efforts to improve and expand access to long-term structural trends in the financial markets.”
“We’ve seen growing interest from clients and investors who want a way to gain equity exposure to alternative asset managers, and existing ETFs weren’t meeting their needs.” – Brandon Rakszawski
“The structural growth of private markets has been one of the major developments in finance and investing in recent years,” Rakszawski said in a news release.
“As the various sub-categories of the alts universe have grown, so too has the desire among individual investors and wealth managers to gain access to the diversification benefits and returns that alternatives may deliver.
“Access to leading alternative asset managers has expanded, but until now, there hasn’t been an ETF offering broad exposure to these firms. GPZ changes that, providing investors with a comprehensive way to tap into this opportunity, and we’re excited to bring it to market at a pivotal moment for private markets.”
Rakszawski added: “Volatility in the equity markets, the growing potential for rate cuts, and a number of other factors appear to be converging, creating a far more favorable environment for many private market managers to deploy the massive reserves of capital they have accrued. That makes now a fascinating potential entry point for investing in the stocks of these firms themselves as they prepare to embark on a new cycle of deployment and growth.”
GPZ was designed to track the performance, before fees and expenses, of the MarketVector Alternative Asset Managers Index (MVAALTTR), a rules-based, modified capitalization-weighted, float-adjusted index made up of equity securities of publicly traded U.S., Canadian and developed European alternative asset management firms, according to VanEck.
In addition to meeting the “ultra-pure play” threshold, companies included in GPZ must meet additional eligibility requirements relating to market cap and trading volume, VanEck said.
As of April 30, VanEck managed about $116.6 billion in assets, including ETFs, mutual funds and institutional accounts.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
