State Street Global Advisors is looking to break into the actively managed ETF business via distribution and partnerships with other asset managers, Reuters reports.

The firm, which will also sell its own ETF products, is a custodian to a number of active managers who lack the resources to go at it alone in the burgeoning space. Jim Ross, ETF business head of the third-largest US ETF provider, told Reuters at IndexUniverse's Inside ETFs Conference that: "This allows us have a bigger presence in the active space and we have a broad platform to partner with firms that do not have the capability to do this themselves."
For starters, the Boston-based firm in March will reportedly roll out three active portfolios that invest in its ETFs as well as an actively managed bank loan ETF that will be managed by GSO Capital Partners, an alternative asset manager owned by Blackstone that specializes in leveraged loans.

However, Ross reportedly admitted that the firm won't be hugely successful in the coming three to five years, but offered that: "we have to be in this market if we want to be a player in the ETF business." 

Edited by: HFD


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