Grail Advisors May be Acquired

In an SEC filing, Grail Advisors, a provider of actively managed exchange-traded funds launched in January 2009, indicates it may be in the process of being acquired. Should that fail, it may liquidate its actively managed ETFs.

Grail says it has “entered into a letter of intent concerning a transaction involving its ownership interests in order to enable it to continue its operations.” Grail is providing fee waivers and expense reimbursements on three of its remaining ETFs, in an effort to attract initial investors.

In August, Grail shut down two of its ETFs due to weak sales. Its five remaining funds haven’t fared much better, and they have combined assets under management of $20 million. The fund with the most assets, the Grail RP Focused Large Cap Growth Fund, has a mere $5 million.

The turn of events might thwart Grail’s plans for three more actively managed ETFs, an international equity fund with American Beacon, an ultra-short duration bond fund with Western Asset Management and

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING