A three-year-old, alternatives-focused fund firm is preparing to buy a $450-million-AUM (as of yesterday) fund family, after buying another fund last month.

Gregory David "Greg" Bassuk AXS Investments LLC Chairman, CEO

Last week, the folks at Port Chester, New York-based AXS Investments [profile] filed to adopt Greenwich, Connecticut-based Tuttle Capital Management, LLC's [profile] six ETFs. And ETF.com reports that Matthew Tuttle, CEO of his eponymous shop, will join AXS "in charge of capital markets and trading." Pricing and terms of the deal have not been publicly disclosed, nor is the deal timing revealed in the filing. (News of the AXS-TCM deal comes after AXS bought the $110-million-AUM CHGX ETF last month.)

AXS has about $640 million in AUM, according to its most recent form ADV filed back in January, so the pending adoption deal would boost its AUM to about $1.09 billion. (It's not clear what the deal means for a $75-million trio of ETFs that TCM subadvises for Mohr Funds.)

"The Tuttle family of funds really fits in very well with our approach to non-traditional alternative exposures for individuals," Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS, tells ETF.com. (Last year, Bassuk talked with MFWire about what AXS is hunting for.)

TCM's $45-million-AUM, actively managed SPAC and New Issue ETF (SPCX) (which launched on December 15, 2020) will become the AXS SPAC and New Issue ETF. Its expense ratio will remain 95 basis points (after a 21-bps fee waiver).

TCM's $1.72-million-AUM, passively managed De-SPAC ETF (DSPC) (which launched on May 19, 2021) will become the AXS De-SPAC ETF. Its expense ratio will remain 75 bps (after a 137-bps fee waiver).

TCM's $1.4-million-AUM, actively managed Short De-SPAC ETF (SOGU) (which also launched on May 19, 2021) will become the AXS Short De-SPAC ETF. Its expense ratio will remain 95 bps (after a 26-bps fee waiver).

TCM's $6.15-million-AUM, actively managed FOMO ETF (FOMO) (which launched on May 25, 2021) will become the AXS FOMO ETF. Its expense ratio will remain 90 bps (after a 47-bps fee waiver).

TCM's $8.09-million-AUM, actively managed Revere Sector Opportunity ETF (RSPY) (which launched on August 24, 2021) will become the AXS Revere Sector Opportunity ETF. Its expense ratio will drop from 115 bps to 105 bps (after a 54-bps fee waiver).

And the $387.35-million-AUM, actively managed Tuttle Capital Short Innovation ETF (SARK) (which launched on November 9, 2021) will become the AXS Short Innovation ETF. The fund currently has an expense ratio of 75 bps, and an updated expense ratio is not listed in AXS' filing from last week.

Under the deal, AXS Investments LLC will take over as investment advisor to each of TCM's six ETFs. Tuttle himself will remain PM to the five ETFs he already PMed. Revere Wealth Management will continue to subadvise the Revere fund, which will continue to be PMed by Revere's own Scott Fullman. All six funds, which are currently series of the Collaborative Investment Series Trust, will become series of the Investment Managers Series Trust II.

IMST Distributors, LLC will take over as distributor and principal underwriter for the six adopted funds, succeeding Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP will take over as the funds' counsel, succeeding Thompson Hine LLP. The funds' new custodian, fund accounting agent, independent accounting firm, and transfer agent were not revealed in AXS' filing. (All six TCM ETFs currently use Citi Fund Services Ohio, Inc. as their administrator and fund accountant and Citibank, N.A. as their custodian. SARK uses BBD, LLP as its independent accounting firm, while the other five TCM ETFs use Cohen & Company, Ltd.) 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE