Die Citigroup übernimmt eine Minderheitsbeteiligung an der White-Label-ETF-Plattform HANetf.Das meldet ETF Stream.
The global bank will join a small handful of institutional investors as shareholders in HANetf, but co-founders and co-CEOs Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski will continue to control the vast majority of voting shares.
Over the past month, HANetf Holdings Limited has increased its share capital by almost 8% through a series of share allotments, according to various filings on Companies House. Citigroup held no position in the business as of 31 May.
The exact size of the stake and capital injection were not disclosed.
McNeil and Bienkowski described Citigroup’s investment as a “landmark moment” for HANetf.
“We’ve always believed that ETF white-labelling would become a core part of the asset management and servicing ecosystem as it has done so before within the broader funds industry. We’re proud to add Citi to our cap table,” they said.
As part of the arrangement, Citigroup will outsource the capital markets function of its upcoming ETF white-label solution to HANetf, with Citigroup’s global head of ETF product Andrew Jamieson describing HANetf as the “most credible” partner to work with.
The Citi Velocity ETFs platform is expected to launch later this year.
Reacting to the development, Jamieson said: “Investing in, and collaborating with HANetf, rounds out our end-to-end ETF capabilities…[making Citigroup] the only global organisation that can deliver an entire ETF ecosystem around the aspiring issuer.”
Founded in 2017, HANetf pioneered the ETF white-labelling model in Europe and remains the industry leader with assets under management (AUM) of $7.7bn.
Goldman Sachs and Waystone entered the market in 2022 – with mixed early results – before Citigroup and Allfunds announced white-labelling ambitions of their own last year.
Both Citigroup and Allfunds cited the rush to roll out active ETFs as a potentially transformative opportunity for white-labellers – a historically tough and low-margin industry.
While Citigroup and HANetf’s white-label offerings will be in competition, Citigroup’s Jamieson told ETF Stream “there are clients who specifically want the Citi name behind the business. In many cases, these are long-standing Citi clients with existing relationships across the firm.”
In contrast to Citigroup, HANetf offers distribution support to prospective issuers.
