Amundi is shifting two ETFs domiciled in Luxembourg to its Irish collective management vehicle (ICAV) including its €4bn S&P 500 ESG ETF.
In a shareholder notice, the group said the Amundi S&P 500 ESG UCITS ETF (S500) would merge with its ICAV duplicate on 18 October while the €2.5bn Amundi MSCI USA ESG Leaders Select UCTS ETF (SADU) will transfer on 15 September.
It will take the number of ETFs Amundi has moved to its Irish fund platform to three, after the €533m Amundi MSCI World ESG Leaders Select UCITS ETF (MWOP) merged in July.
In addition, the French asset manager has duplicated five more ETFs from its SICAV range on its Irish platform as it continues to tout investors looking to benefit from its favourable tax treaty with the US.
The five new duplicated ETFs are:
Lyxor MSCI USA ESG Climate Transition CTB UCITS ETF (CLUS)
Amundi MSCI World Climate Paris Aligned PAB UCITS ETF (PABW)
Lyxor MSCI World Catholic Principles ESG UCITS ETF (CATH)
Amundi Prime USA UCITS ETF (PR1U)
Amundi S&P Global Financials ESG UCITS ETF (WELY)
Under the ICAV, the duplicated Lyxor ETFs have also been rebranded to Amundi.
An Amundi spokesperson said the move was to offer its clients a variety of options, including “a high level of flexibility in terms of fund domiciles”.
“This can imply having duplicates in the range as we have always had. Two ETFs tracking the same index may still have some differentiated features such as domicile, replication technique or fund size and liquidity answering different clients’ needs,” the spokesperson said.
“That said and as usual, should we decide to implement a product evolution, it will be as usual driven by client demand and investors will be informed in line with regulatory obligations and timelines.”
The favourable tax treaty in the US is one of the key drivers for the move, with US equity ETFs domiciled in Ireland subject to a 15% withholding tax rate on dividends versus 30% for ETFs in Luxembourg and other jurisdictions.
In June, assets in Ireland-domiciled ETFs topped €1trn for the first time as issuers looked to benefit from the tax treaty.
At the start of this year, ETF Stream revealed BNP Paribas Asset Management planned to domicile ETFs in Europe to “compete” with other issuers.
