WisdomTree has merged its UK equity income ETF into its UK quality dividend growth ETF after the fund “failed to gather sufficient assets”.
The WisdomTree UK Equity Income UCITS ETF (WUKD) which has $12.8M assets under management (AUM) – according to the firm’s website – merged into the $13m WisdomTree UK Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF (UGRW) on 25 October.
In a shareholder notice, the asset manager said, “Since the merging fund’s inception in 2015, the merging fund has failed to gather sufficient assets and an improvement is not expected in the short to medium term.
A spokesperson from WisdomTree told ETF Stream: “A quality dividend growth approach to UK equities is expected to better reflect current investor needs in a UK equity solution with a dividend tilt and have higher chances for future success.
“The Directors of the ICAV believe that the proposed merger provides investors of the merging fund with an alternative solution that allows investors to access UK equities through a strategy that has proven its worth over many years and across multiple regions.”
Fees and SFDR classification of the two funds are identical, with a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.29% and Article 8 under SFDR.
UGRW tracks the WisdomTree UK Quality Dividend Growth index which offers exposure to dividend paying UK companies with quality and growth characteristics.
Its top three highest weightings are Compass Group (4.9%), Relx (4.8%) Diageo (4.8%).
WisdomTree was among the worst performing issuers in Q3, with the asset manager seeing $654m outflows and a poor performance from its physical platinum, brent crude oil and physical silver exchange traded commodities.
Meanwhile, Amundi is set to merge its $228m MSCI emerging markets ETF into a newly created ESG equivalent following the ongoing consolidation of its range after its acquisition of Lyxor.
