London: SPA ETF, the pioneering ‘second generation’ Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) provider that uses MarketGrader for its investment methodology, is pleased to announce the appointment of UniCredit HVB as an Authorised Participant.

UniCredit has signed up as an Authorised Participant to the range of SPA MarketGrader ETFs and is able to create and redeem ETF units in SPA’s European funds on behalf of clients in Europe.  SPA ETFs’ European range of funds are currently listed in UK and Italy.
 
With a market capitalization of around €54 billion and a presence in 23 countries, UniCredit HVB has a strong position and reputation in Europe for working with ETF providers to provide pricing for customers.

Daniel Freedman, Director of SPA ETF comments:

"As a substantial European player in the ETF arena, we are pleased to be working together with UniCredit HVB as our Authorised Participant. It will give us the comfort to provide our customers with a high level of professionalism in providing pricing.  This latest news is all part of the continued development of our ETF offering”.

Paolo Giulianini, Director, Head of ETF Trading, UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking / HVB comments:

“We are delighted to have been appointed as the Authorised Participant by SPA ETF for its MarketGrader range and look forward to working with SPA ETF to help it to continue its success.

“By offering SPA ETFs to our client base we strengthen our characteristic of being Market Maker of all ETFs issuers in all ETF listings in Europe covering all underlyings.” 

SPA MarketGrader ETFs utilise the performance of fundamentally driven indices created by US research company MarketGrader to provide private and institutional investors with access to a broad universe of US equities via an investment vehicle that has equal weighting, is rebalanced regularly, uses transparent data and selects stocks using 24 fundamental factors.

ETFs can be traded in real-time on the world’s stock exchanges and investors can buy and sell throughout the day at live prices rather than limiting themselves to the end-of-day price points available for open-ended fund investors. Investors also benefit from improved transparency as information on the securities’ underlying assets is published daily.

Demonstrating the company’s growing presence as a global provider of ETFs, SPA ETF recently listed on the Borsa Italiana, following its listings last year on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and American Stock Exchange (Amex).

Six SPA MarketGrader ETFs exist on the LSE, Amex and Borsa Italiana:

• SPA ETF MarketGrader 40: 
• SPA ETF MarketGrader 100:
• SPA ETF MarketGrader 200:
• SPA ETF MarketGrader Small Cap:
• SPA ETF MarketGrader Mid Cap:
• SPA ETF MarketGrader Large Cap

Each of the SPA ETF MarketGrader 40, 100 and 200 are based on MarketGrader’s ‘core’ indices of top-rated North American securities. Whilst the SPA ETF MarketGrader Small Cap, Mid Cap and Large Cap are ‘cap’ indices based on the top 100 North American stocks within each market capitalisation category.