Fledgling Toronto-based trading venue Aequitas NEO Exchange Inc. has its first listing in the pipeline with the launch of a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) by one of its founding shareholders, Invesco Canada Ltd., also of Toronto.
Invesco subsidiary, PowerShares Canada, has applied to have its new ETF, PowerShares DWA Global Momentum Index ETF, listed on Aequitas NEO, the exchange that was launched by Aequitas Innovations Inc. last year. The firm has also filed a preliminary prospectus for the new product with regulators.
According to the prospectus, the ETF will track the performance of the Dorsey Wright global technical leaders index, which is “comprised of up to four DWG-eligible PowerShares portfolios from the PowerShares DWA Momentum lineup of ETFs targeting different segments of the global equity space. The objective of the index is to overweight exposure to the DWG-eligible security with the highest relative strength, while giving lower weightings to those DWG-eligible securities with low relative strength.”
The proposed listing “will be the first in a series of new listings” that Aequitas NEO is expecting in the months ahead, the exchange reports.
“With a shared vision of bringing competitive and innovative solutions to the Canadian capital markets, Invesco Canada is the perfect partner to kick off the listing business on NEO,” says Jos Schmitt, president and CEO of Aequitas NEO, in a release. “We have designed our listings offering to ensure we optimize the investor experience. We look forward to meeting the needs of companies and investment products who choose to list on NEO.”
Aequitas NEO launched its listings platform last summer in a bid to bring more competition to the listings business in Canada.
“We have completed our due diligence on NEO’s operations, including its trading and market data business, and we are impressed with what we found,” says Peter Intraligi, president and chief operating officer of Invesco Canada, in a release. (Invesco Canada owns a stake in Aequitas Innovations and Intraligi also sits on the company’s board of directors.)
This past November, Aequitas Innovations announced plans for a new mutual fund trading platform, Aequitas PTF Connect, based on technology that Invesco developed for platform-traded funds, which are actively managed mutual funds that transact and settle like ETFs.
“Through innovative and competitive investment products, we strive to give investors new opportunities to achieve their long-term financial goals,” Intraligi adds. “Invesco is a strong advocate of free market competition, as we believe it spurs innovation, which ultimately benefits investors.”