The teams at a $3.747-billion-AUM (as of yesterday) Gotham ETF specialist and a Garden State asset manager are rolling out a new, actively managed U.S. fund that focuses on India.

Fiona Chi Yu Ho Simplify Asset Management, Inc. Chief Operating Officer

Yesterday, Fiona Ho, chief operating officer of Simplify Asset Management Inc. [profile], and Anupam Ghose, managing partner and CEO of System Two Advisors (aka System 2 Advisors L.P. or S2), unveiled the launch of the Simplify Tara India Opportunities ETF (IOPP on the NYSE Arca, Inc.). The new ETF is a series of Simplify Exchange Traded Funds.

IOPP's inception date was Monday, and it comes with an expense ratio of 70 basis points (which bakes in a 30bps fee waiver promised for at least a year). As of yesterday, the new fund had $2.483 million in AUM.

New York City-based Simplify serves as investment advisor to IOPP, and Summit, New Jersey-based S2 serves as subadvisor. The new ETF's PM team includes: David Berns, chief investment officer and co-founder of Simplify; and Ghose, who is also a portfolio manager at S2.

Ho (nee Cole) confirms that IOPP is Simplify's "first international ETF." She highlights S2's "on-the-ground knowledge of the unique aspects of the Indian economy and India growth story." The Simplify team notes that, to power bottom-up research, S2 has "70 on-the-ground in-market personnel across India."

"We're thrilled to be bringing IOPP to market and can think of no betterr firm with which to partner than System Two Advisors," Ho states.

IOPP is designed to have a "high-conviction portfolio" of between 25 and 40 different holdings at a time.

Ghose praises "the forward-thinking team at Simplify." He puts the launch of IOPP in the context of India's "highly favorable demographics" and notes that the country is "one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world, with GDP forecasted to top six percent over the next five years."

"It's no surprise then that investors are turning more of their attention to the role that India can play in an international equity portfolio, but what is surprising is how investors have gravitated towards passive India exposures, which are too often dominated by large, globally oriented stocks," Ghose states. "To truly capture the India growth story, an actively managed approach is a must."

IOPP's other service providers include: Bank of New York Mellon as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, fund accountant, shareholder servicing agent, and transfer agent; Cohen & Company, Ltd. as independent accounting firm; Foreside Financial Services, LLC as distributor and principal underwriter; Foreside Fund Officer Services, LLC as chief compliance officer provider; and Thompson Hine LLP as counsel. 

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