Echelon, BLG team up to create “capital pool company”

Toronto-based AGF Investments Inc. has introduced a new quantitative investment platform responsible for the management of its first suite of ETFs, which became available on Monday.

AGFiQ Asset Management consists of a multi-disciplinary team including investment professionals from AGF and its affiliates from London, Ont.-based Highstreet Asset Management Inc. and Boston-based FFCM LLC.

“We spent a significant amount of time refining our quantitatively-based investment processes and capabilities to unify them under AGFiQ,” says Kevin McCreadie, president and chief investment officer with AGF, in a statement.

“Our team of investment professionals builds portfolios with an emphasis on factor-driven investing and our proprietary multi-factor approach allows for intelligent portfolio construction that provide opportunities for total return while also actively managing risk and the potential for losses,” he adds.

AGF also introduced its suite of the following seven actively managed ETFs on Monday, which are now listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange:

  • QuantShares Enhanced Core Canadian Equity ETF, which seeks to 
provide long-term capital appreciation with reduced volatility by investing primarily in Canadian equities.
  • QuantShares Enhanced Core U.S. Equity ETF, which aims to provide 
long-term capital appreciation with reduced volatility by investing primarily in U.S. equities.
  • QuantShares Enhanced Core International Equity ETF, which seeks 
to provide long-term capital appreciation with reduced volatility by investing primarily in equities of issuers in 
Europe, Australasia and the Far East.
  • QuantShares Enhanced Core Emerging Markets Equity ETF, which 
aims to provide long-term capital appreciation with reduced volatility by investing primarily in equities of 
emerging market issuers.
  • QuantShares Global Equity Rotation ETF, which seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing directly or indirectly in global equities and could include investments in other ETFs.
  • QuantShares MultiAsset Allocation ETF, which aims to provide long-term capital appreciation with reduced volatility by investing directly or 
indirectly in global equities and fixed-income 
securities. This could include investments in ETFs and other securities related to non-traditional asset classes.
  • QuantShares MultiAsset Income Allocation ETF, which seeks to 
generate capital growth and regular income by investing directly or indirectly in global equities and fixed-income 
securities. This could include investments in ETFs and other securities related to non-traditional asset classes.

“Our deep expertise lends itself to the creation of custom solutions, including ETF model portfolios, in a variety of vehicles including mutual funds, exchange-traded products and portfolios, and separately managed accounts designed to help investors achieve the full spectrum of investment objectives from capital appreciation to risk management,” says Blake Goldring, chairman and CEO, AGF Management Ltd., in a statement.

cooldesign/123RF