Goldman aims for ‘PE returns’ with new ETF

The Goldman Sachs MSCI World Private Equity Return Tracker ETF, which begins trading on Thursday under the ticker GTPE, will track an MSCI index of publicly listed stocks designed to approximate “private equity-like returns,” according to a press release. GTPE’s portfolio holds around 1,500 global equities, with both long and short positions.

With the debut, Goldman joins a growing list of asset managers seeking to replicate private equity exposure within the easy-to-trade ETF wrapper. For some, that has meant buying shares of buyout firms, or investing in private securities up to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 15% cap on open-ended fund holdings in illiquid assets.

“This is not private equity, this is private equity replication,” Brendan McCarthy, global head of ETF distribution at Goldman Asset Management, said.

“We think there is a demographic of buyers who still want the diversification of private equity, of privates in general, but there’s still operational hurdles — lockup periods, documentation, capital calls, you name it — that diversification isn’t accessible. So we think this is bringing further access.”

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The audience McCarthy is referring to not only includes retail traders, but institutional investors as well, he said, citing client conversations. GTPE charges 0.5% annually and is managed by the firm’s Quantitative Investment Strategies team, lead by Oliver Bunn.The MSCI index that underpins GTPE’s portfolio went live this past summer. Its largest weightings are currently Microsoft, Eli Lilly and Palantir. While private assets are an increasingly important part of portfolios, it’s difficult to find a benchmark to compare them to, and MSCI’s index helps create a starting point for that exposure, McCarthy said. “The opportunity here and the interesting thing is working with MSCI and doing something that we don’t think has been done before in this category, which is creating a benchmark,” McCarthy said. “MSCI is in a great position to create a benchmark for asset owners and institutional wealth to think about private equity.”