While the asset management industry has been watching and waiting for a mutual fund to become an ETF for the first time, it turns out history was being made with a conversion of another kind.
A tiny U.S. hedge fund has just become the first to convert into an ETF.
The actively managed Upholdings Compound Kings ETF (KNGS) began trading last week. It’s a new wrapper for a tech-heavy portfolio that was started in March 2019 by Nashville, Tennessee-based Upholdings Funds.
The firm wanted to expand its investor base — in particular to include retail investors — so began exploring the process of converting the $3 million hedge fund last March. Plans were formally filed with the SEC in October.
“You shouldn’t have to be rich and invest privately in order to go after managers who are trying to beat benchmarks,” said Robert Cantwell, the founder and CEO of Upholdings Group. The move is about “expanding access to high quality growth investing to non-accredited investors,” he said.
It’s a sign of the times for the investment industry. ETFs continue to gain ground on both mutual and hedge funds thanks to their ease of access, while retail investors have been increasingly calling the shots in the stock market. The debut of KNGS comes as the ETF universe awaits the first mutual fund conversion, for which issuers including Guinness Atkinson Funds and Dimensional Fund Advisors have filed plans.
Internet stocks comprise 44% of KNGS assets and top holdings include the likes of Alibaba and Facebook — a portfolio that’s returned 115% since the hedge fund’s inception through the end of 2020. That compares to an 80% gain for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100.
With an average gain of more than 108%, the lineup includes actively managed leaders with fees well above 100 basis points.
The ETF’s management fee is $6 for every $1,000 invested.
Another potential advantage to the conversion is that with tech valuations looking expensive the holdings can be reshuffled without triggering taxes for the fund’s investors, Cantwell said.
“We’re now in a position of sitting on a lot of expensively priced growth stocks,” Cantwell said. “We now have an ETF and we are very actively rebalancing away from those very expensive growth stocks and none of my investors are having to pay any taxes for us doing that.” — Additional reporting by Dave Liedtka
