ETF Securities Limited has agreed to sell its European Exchange Traded Fund platform, known as Canvas, to Legal & General Investment Management (Holdings) Limited (LGIM).

The ETF platform comprises an Irish-based UCITS fund and a UK-based investment manager and has $2.7* billion of AUM spread across 17 products. The Canvas team will be moving to LGIM.

The sale is subject to regulatory approval and is anticipated to close in Q1 2018.

Graham Tuckwell, Founder and Chairman of ETF Securities, says: “We have built the Canvas business from scratch to be Europe’s largest independent ETF provider and it is now of a size and quality that can be taken to the next level of growth by a large and highly respected firm such as LGIM.  Combining the ETF expertise and capabilities of Canvas with the scale and reach of LGIM should be transformative for existing and new customers.”

Mark Weeks, the UK CEO of ETF Securities says: “This transaction reflects growing appetite for innovative content ETFs across the industry and is the result of extensive discussions with LGIM on how we can best work together to deliver new and exciting products to our customers.  We strongly believe that ownership by LGIM it is in the best long-term interests of our ETF investors and we intend to deliver a seamless handover of the business.”

Source: ETF Securities