Unitholders of four Horizons BetaPro exchange traded funds have approved approved changing the underlying index of each ETF, BetaPro Management Inc. said Friday.

The changes to Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural Grains Bull Plus ETF, Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural Grains Bear Plus ETF, Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX Global Mining Bull Plus ETF, and Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX Global Mining Bear Plus ETF were approved at special meetings on July 24.

Subject to regulatory approval, the changes will be made effective Monday, August 24.

Agricultural ETFs

The investment objectives of the agricultural ETFs will be amended so that the Dow Jones-UBS Grains Subindex is replaced with the S&P Agribusiness North America Index. The names of Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural Grains Bull Plus ETF and Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural Grains Bear Plus ETF will change to reflect the new underlying index and will continue to trade under the TSX tickers HAU and HAD, respectively.

The S&P Agribusiness North America Index is designed to provide liquid exposure to the upstream and downstream supply chain of the agribusiness sector. It includes some of the largest publicly traded agribusiness companies trading on the U.S and Canadian exchanges.

By moving to an equity based agricultural index, BetaPro believes the agricultural ETFs may benefit from improved market liquidity because public trading of the equity issuers in the index and exchange will close at the same time.

Mining ETFs

The investment objectives of the mining ETFs will be amended so that the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index(is replaced with the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index. The names of the Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX Global Mining Bull Plus ETF and Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX Global Mining Bear Plus ETF will change to reflect the new underlying index and will continue to trade under the TSX tickers HMU and HMD, respectively.

The S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index is a subset of the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index. It is designed to provide an investable index of global securities involved in the production or extraction of base metals excluding gold.

By moving to an exclusive base metals index, BetaPro says investors will receive a pure play in the sector, compared to the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index which included a significant weighting to gold producers. In addition, the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index has a comparatively smaller underlying basket than the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index, which BetaPro believes may also result in improved market liquidity.

“We are pleased that unitholders approved changing the underlying indexes of these ETFs to S&P Agribusiness North America Index and S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index,” said Howard Atkinson, president of BetaPro.

“The proposed changes are in response to market demand and should, in both cases, significantly improve the market liquidity of these ETFs,” he added.

Toronto-based BetaPro manages approximately $2.4 billion among 38 ETFs.

IE