William Blair Investment Management today announced it has completed the conversion of the William Blair Emerging Markets Debt Mutual Fund into a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF), the William Blair Emerging Income ETF (WINC).
WINC is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today and will retain the predecessor fund’s investment strategy and track record dating to May 25, 2021, while offering the benefits of the ETF structure, including lower expenses, potential tax efficiency, and greater transparency.
The fund is the firm’s third active ETF and its first fixed income ETF, building on the launch last week of its first two active ETFs, William Blair Emerging Markets Equity (WBEM), and William Blair International Equity (WBIE).
WINC draws on William Blair’s dedicated emerging markets debt team, which joined the firm in 2020 and brought with it two decades of emerging markets fixed income investing experience. Led by Marcelo Assalin, the 12-person team combines deep expertise and diverse perspectives to identify opportunities and manage risks across emerging markets.
WINC seeks income and total return across a broad opportunity set in more than 90 emerging markets. Through an active, research-driven approach, the team allocates across sovereign and corporate issuers, currencies, rates and regions with a strong focus on risk management, seeking to identify attractive risk-adjusted yield opportunities.
“Investors are increasingly building portfolios with ETFs, and they want to access active strategies in the structure they prefer,” said Bob Kendall, Global Head of William Blair Investment Management. “WINC extends our emerging markets fixed-income capabilities into an ETF, reflecting our belief that investors should have flexibility in how they access our investment expertise.”
The launch builds on William Blair’s more than 30 years of experience investing across international and emerging markets and represents another step in the firm’s plans to expand its active ETF platform over time.
“Emerging markets fixed income is one of the world’s most dynamic and diverse fixed-income opportunity sets,” said Marcelo Assalin, CFA, Partner and Head of William Blair’s Emerging Markets Debt Team. “Having spent our careers in these markets, we are keenly aware of both opportunities and risks—and the ETF structure lets more investors access our approach with the added benefits of potential tax efficiency, intraday liquidity, and transparency.”
Please carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. This and other information is contained in the Fund’s prospectus and summary prospectus, which you may obtain by calling 1-800-742-7272. Read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing. Investing includes the risk of loss.
The William Blair ETFs are distributed by William Blair & Company, L.L.C., member FINRA/SIPC.
About William Blair Investment Management
William Blair Investment Management is a premier global investment management partnership with a sole focus on active management across U.S. growth and core equities; U.S. value equities; global equities, including emerging markets equities; and emerging markets debt strategies. We work closely with private and public pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds, as well as financial advisors.
About William Blair
William Blair is the premier global partnership with expertise in investment banking, investment management, and private wealth management. We provide advisory services, strategies, and solutions to meet our clients’ evolving needs. As an independent and employee-owned firm, together with our strategic partners, we operate in more than 30 offices worldwide. See: https://www.williamblair.com/
*Includes strategic alliances with Allier Capital, BDA Partners, and Poalim Equity Ltd.
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