The folks at a $4.1-trillion-AUM (as of December 31) institutional asset manager and ETF giant is doubling down on their active ETF partnership with an $881-billion-AUM (also as of December 31) alternative asset manager.

Susan Ruth "Sue" Thompson State Street Global Advisors Head of Americas ETF Distribution for SPDR ETFs

Last month, Sue Thompson, head of SPDR Americas distribution at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA [profile]), and Dan McMullen, head of North American liquid portfolio management at Blackstone [profile], unveiled the launch of the SPDR Blackstone High Income ETF (HYBL on the Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.), a series of the SSGA Active Trust. The active ETF's inception date was February 16, and it debuted the next day on the exchange; as of yesterday, it had more than $129 million in AUM.

SSGA Funds Management, Inc. (SSGA FM) serves as administrator and investment advisor to the new fund, while Blackstone Liquid Credit Strategies LLC serves as subadvisor. Two Blackstone senior managing directors (McMullen and Dan Smith) and four managing directors (Bonnie Brookshaw, Adam Dwinells, Paul Harrison, and Gordon McKemie) will co-PM the new fund. It comes with an expense ratio of 70 basis points.

The launch of HYBL comes about nine years after the SSGA team launched another Blackstone-powered, actively managed fixed income ETF, SRLN. SRLN grew to $9.846 billion in AUM as of yesterday, after bringing in more than $6.7 billion in 2021 inflows. (According to the SSGA team, that made SRLN the fastest growing active ETF in the U.S. last year.)

"We're excited to expand on our successful partnership with Blackstone to provide investors with a new approach to income investing," Thompson states, lauding "Blackstone's deep expertise."

"We see a compelling opportunity to generate income in high yield corporate bonds, senior loans and CLO debt securities through our active management approach," McMullen states.

Other service providers to the new fund include: Ernst & Young LLP as independent accounting firm; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as counsel; State Street as custodian, securities lending agent, sub-administrator, and transfer agent; and State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) as distributor. 

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