Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus has acquired a majority stake in Source, a leading European provider of exchange-traded products (ETPs). The deal will see new money injected into the London-based provider to help it enhance its product offering, develop distribution capabilities and expand through acquisitions. Lee Kranefuss, currently an executive-in-residence at Warburg Pincus, will join the firm as executive chairman. Kranefuss was formerly global CEO of ETF giant iShares.

Global ETF and ETP industry assets reached a new record high of $2.4 trillion at year-end 2013, according to preliminary findings from ETFGI, a London-based consultancy. The global ETF/ETP industry had 5,090 ETFs/ETPs, with 10,172 listings, from 218 providers on 60 exchanges at the end of 2013. Global assets increased by 23% over the year, based on positive market performance and net inflows of $242.8 billion, but did not surpass the $265.0 billion in net inflows in 2012.

Market Vectors ETFs, a US-based provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced that the Market Vectors Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR), a fund providing equity market exposure to the global uranium and nuclear industries, is to change its underlying index. The fund, which is listed on the NYSE Arca and has almost $80 million in assets, is currently linked to the DAXglobal Nuclear Energy Index. Effective on or about March 21, 2014, the fund will drop this index and instead begin tracking the Market Vectors Global Uranium & Nuclear Energy Index.

UBS Global Asset Management has licensed 27 currency hedged equity indices from MSCI for the launch of a new series of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be rolled out in Europe. Thomas Merz, Head of UBS ETFs Europe, commented: “By basing our physically replicated ETFs on a range of MSCI Hedged Indices, we are able to offer our clients a way to reduce currency risk and optimize portfolio returns in a transparent and cost-efficient way.”

Emerging Global Advisors (EGA), the asset manager to the EGShares exchange-traded fund offering, and TCW Group, a global asset management firm, have teamed up to launch three emerging market fixed income ETFs on the NYSE Arca. The ETFs are the industry’s first to provide duration-defined exposure to USD-denominated investment grade emerging market sovereign and corporate bonds. All three funds are advised by EGA, sub-advised by TCW and track custom indices created and monitored by JP Morgan.

Global commodity exchange-traded product (ETP) assets declined by $78bn to $122bn in 2013, primarily on the back of a sharp decline in the gold price and outflows from gold ETPs, according to data published by ETF Securities. The decline in gold ETP AUM accounted for 91% of the decline in all commodity ETP assets in 2013. Non-gold commodity ETP outflows accounted for less than 1% of the AUM decline, highlighting investors’ more balanced views towards commodities other than gold.

According to the latest ETP Landscape report from BlackRock, parent of iShares, global exchange-traded product (ETP) flows accelerated in December to $24.7 billion, following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to begin trimming its $85 billion monthly bond-buying programme. Total 2013 flows of $235.5 billion surpassed $200 billion for the second consecutive year, underscoring the industry’s continued secular growth. The composition of flows shifted significantly in favour of equities versus 2012, illustrating how investors use ETPs to seek efficient, tailored access to varied investment exposures and for diversified buy-and-hold investments.

In 2013, the S&P GSCI Gold and DJ-UBS Gold indices fell 28.3%. Given the severity of this loss and the magnitude of outflows from gold ETPs ($36.4 billion in the 11 months to 30 November 2013, according to BlackRock), many questions have been asked about the future of gold. In this Q&A, Jodie Gunzberg, Vice President of Commodity Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, answers some of the most popular questions on ETP investors’ minds.

In its latest ETP Landscape Report, BlackRock, parent of ETF giant iShares, outlined 10 “surprises”, or trends, in the world of ETPs in 2013. Among the trends highlighted are that ETPs listed in the US grew at a faster rate than in any other region, despite it already being the largest regional asset base, and that “strategic beta” (also known as “smart beta”) equity ETFs gathered a record total of $61.3bn – nearly a third of this year’s global industry flows.

By Tim Edwards, Director, Index Investment Strategy, S&P Dow Jones Indices. If current trends continue, 2014 will herald a significant milestone for the exchange-traded fund (ETF) and hedge fund industries, as the total amount of capital invested in the former threatens to overtake the latter. Once the darlings of the asset management industry, hedge funds are seeing their pre-eminent status challenged by a diametrically opposite segment of the investment spectrum, as the cheap, liquid and transparent value proposition of ETFs continues to attract substantial investment from across the globe.