The folks at a 47-year-old, $70-billion-AUM (as of September 30) asset manager are quadrupling their ETF lineup with a trio of launches, one year after entering the space. Watch for the Boston-based firm's team to roll out a couple more ETFs soon, too.

Scott Louis Hayward Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo LLC CEO, Board Member

Last week (on Tuesday, October 29), Scott Hayward, CEO of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC (GMO [profile]), and Ben Inker, co-head of asset allocation at GMO, unveiled the launch of the GMO International Quality ETF (QLTI), the GMO International Value ETF (GMOI), and the GMO U.S. Value ETF (GMOV). Inker and Hayward also highlight that the GMO team has filed to launch two more ETFs: the GMO Beyond China ETF (BCHI) and the GMO Systematic Investment Grade Credit ETF (INVG).

GMOV, GMOI, and QLTI's inception date was October 28. GMOI and QLTI come with expense ratios of 60 basis points, while GMOV's expense ratio is 50bps. INVG's expense ratio will be 25bps, and BCHI's expense ratio will be 65bps.

GMO serves as investment advisor to the three new ETFs that launched last week, and the firm will do so for BCHI and INVG, too. All three new ETFs and the two planned ETFs are built on actively managed strategies.

GMOI and GMOV share the same PM team: George Sakoulis, head of GMO's systematic equity team; John Thorndike, co-head of the asset allocation team; and Warren Chiang and Tara Oliver, portfolio managers on the systematic equity team.

QLTI's PM team includes: Thomas Hancock, head of GMO's focused equity team; and Ty Cobb and Anthony Hene, PMs on that same team.

Chiang and Sakoulis will also PM BCHI. As for INVG, its PM team will include James Donaldson and Jason Hotra, PMs on GMO's fixed income team.

Hayward describes expand GMO's ETF suite as "a natural step forward in [GMO's] mission to offer clients diverse ways to invest in innovative GMO solutions."

"Each of these new ETFs reflects our focus on disciplined, long-term, valuation-driven investment processes and our drive to meet growing investor demand," Hayward states.

"GMO's new ETFs are designed to provide investors exposure to areas of the market where we see compelling opportunity today: dislocated value stocks both in the U.S. and abroad and high-quality businesses outside the U.S.," Inker states. "Deep value stocks in particular are historically undervalued in the U.S. and have never been cheaper in developed non-U.S. markets, dating back to the 1980s."

(The GMO team launched their first ETF, QLTY, last November, and it has since grown to surpass $1 billion in AUM.)

GMO's three new ETFs, and their two planned ETFs, are all series of the 2023 ETF Series Trust II, and they all list (or will list) on NYSE Arca, Inc.). The ETFs' other service providers include: ACA's Foreside Fund Service, LLC as distributor; Foreside Fund Officer Services, LLC as provider of five funder officers (president, secretary, chief compliance officer, anti-money laundering officer, and treasurer); Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as counsel; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent accounting firm; and State Street Bank and Trust Company as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, securities lending agent, and transfer agent. 

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