Births

On March 22, Market Vectors [profile] has launched the Market Vectors Treasury-Hedged High Yield Bond ETF.

On March 18 Nuveen [profile] unveiled two new mutual funds, the Nuveen Santa Barbara Global Dividend Growth Fund and the Nuveen Santa Barbara International Dividend Growth Fund. Both new mutual funds are powered by Nuveen boutique Santa Barbara Asset Management and PM by the boutique's chief investment officer, James Boothe.

On March 18 Shelton Capital Management [profile] officially launched its Shelton Green Alpha Fund, sub-advised by Green Alpha Advisors. MFWire previously reported that the new fund softly launched on March 12.

Gene Therapy

Van Eck Global [profile] is switching indexes for two of its ETFs. Frankfurt, Germany-based Van Eck subsidiary Market Vectors Index Solutions GmbH revealed that the $5.7-billion Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF now follows the Market Vectors Global Agribusiness Index and the $11.6-million Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF now tracks the Market Vectors Global Solar Energy Index.

Brain Surgery

On March 19 Sentinel Investments [profile] unveiled plans to pull three interim co-PMs from four mutual funds, to be replaced by veteran Paradigm Capital Management PM Jason Ronovech. On March 30, Sentinel president and CEO Christian Thwaites and co-PMs Daniel Manion and Hilary Roper will step down as interim co-PMs of: the four-star, neutral-rated, $1.3-billion Sentinel Small Company Fund; the two-star, $102.6-million Sentinel Mid Cap Fund; and the two-star, $124.0-million Sentinel Sustainable Mid Cap Opportunities Fund. The three-star, $48.3-million Sentinel Mid Cap II Fund will merger into the Mid Cap Fund on April 12.

Ronovech will serve as lead PM for the Small Company and Mid Cap Funds, and co-PM for the Sustainable Mid Cap Opportunities Fund. Carole Hersam will stay on as co-PM for all three funds.

New Outfits

On March 18 Neuberger Berman [profile] unveiled a new R6 share class, devoid of sales loads and 12b-1 fees. The new shares, available for seven of Neuberger's mutual funds — the Neuberger Berman Emerging Markets Equity Fund, Neuberger Berman Genesis Fund, Neuberger Berman High Income Bond Fund, the Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund, the Neuberger Berman Real Estate Fund, the Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive Fund, and the Neuberger Berman Strategic Income Fund — are designed specifically for the advisor-sold segment of the retirement plan marketplace.

They Grow Up So Fast

On March 18 Invesco PowerShares [profile] revealed that its PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio ETF passed $4 billion in AUM. The ETF launched in May 2011.

Pregnancies

IndexUniverse reports that Schwab [profile] filed to launch six ETFs tracking Russell-powered fundamental indexes. Five of the six ETFs will simply be ETF versions of mutual funds Schwab already offers.

The Party's At Capacity

On March 15 Cambiar Investors [profile] revealed that, effective April 30, it will shut its flagship, five-star, $1.4-billion Cambiar Small Cap Fund to new investors. As of February 28, Cambiar boasted $2.18 billion in total, non-money market mutual fund assets, meaning the closing fund is 64 percent of that business.


Check back as we continue to update this column throughout the week.

If you have a mutual fund launch or product change that you would like to announce, contact the MFWire team at editors@investmentwires.com. 

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