CIBC Asset Management Inc. (CAMI) has filed a preliminary prospectus with securities regulators to bring eight ETF offerings from Avantis Investors to the Canadian market.
CAMI and Avantis, which is owned by American Century Investments Inc., entered a strategic partnership to launch the following proposed funds:
- Avantis CIBC Canadian Equity ETF
- Avantis CIBC U.S. All-Cap Equity ETF
- Avantis CIBC U.S. Large Cap Value ETF
- Avantis CIBC U.S. Small Cap Value ETF
- Avantis CIBC All-Equity Asset Allocation ETF
- Avantis CIBC Global Small Cap Value ETF
- Avantis CIBC International Equity ETF
- Avantis CIBC Emerging Markets Equity ETF
In a release, Greg Gipson, managing director and head of ETFs with CAMI, said his team’s excited to work with Avantis “to help investors further build strong and resilient portfolios tailored to their own unique goals.” Philip McInnis, chief investment strategist with Avantis, added his firm is “thrilled” to work with CAMI to make these ETFs available to Canadian investors.
Manulife debuts two new ETFs
Manulife Investments has launched two new ETFs, one that’s designed for investors seeking potential income opportunities and another that seeks to capture long-term capital appreciation opportunities.
The Manulife Smart Enhanced Yield Bond ETF, available in hedged (Cboe: BYLD) and unhedged (Cboe: BYLD.B) versions, aims to generate a steady flow of income. It invests in fixed income, primarily through investments in underlying ETFs and derivatives.
BYLD is managed by Nicholas Scipio del Campo, Jean-Francois Giroux and Jeff Wu of Manulife Investment Management. Its hedged version has a 0.45% management fee, while its unhedged version has a 0.4% management fee.
The Manulife Global Edge ETF (Cboe: GEDG) aims to deliver long-term capital appreciation. It invests primarily in global equity securities.
GEDG is managed by Geoff Kelley and Noman Ali of Manulife Investment Management. It has a 0.5% management fee.
BMO’s got more CDRs on offer
Bank of Montreal’s not done launching Canadian depositary receipts (CDRs).
It continued its weeks-long CDR launch spree by bringing five more CDRs to market this week.
The new CDRs, available on Cboe Canada, provide investors with exposure to:
- Common shares of Microsoft Corp. (Cboe: ZMSF)
- Class A common shares of Eli Lilly and Co. (Cboe: ZLLY)
- Class A common shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. (Cboe: ZXOM)
- Common shares of Chevron Corp. (Cboe: ZCVX)
- Class A common shares of Robinhood Markets, Inc. (Cboe: ZHOO)
The bank now has 79 CDRs in total.
TDAM expands access to group of funds
TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM) has introduced advisor series for a group of funds, expanding access for advisors and investors in Canada.
The advisor series, now available for TD MAP ETF Portfolios, was launched “in response to growing industry demand for cost-effective, diversified ETF portfolio solutions,” TDAM said in a release.
The five TD MAP ETF Portfolios are each tailored to a specific investor risk profile.
Insurers roll out new seg funds
The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada and Manulife have introduced new segregated funds.
Waterloo, Ont.-based Equitable refers to its slew of new seg funds as guaranteed investment funds. They feature maturity and death benefit guarantees, an automatic asset rebalancing option, preferred pricing and householding, as well as digital transactions for advisors and clients.
Those seg funds are managed by 10 firms including Brandes Investment Partners, L.P., RBC Global Asset Management, Fiera Capital Corp., Canoe Financial LP, Vanguard Investments Canada Inc., Fidelity Investments Canada ULC, Dynamic, Invesco Canada Ltd., Franklin Templeton and Equitable Asset Management Group.
For its part, Manulife launched four new seg funds, which invest in funds managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Ltd.
They include the Manulife BlackRock Canada Universe Bond Index Fund, Manulife BlackRock Canadian Equity Index Fund, Manulife BlackRock U.S. Equity Index Fund and Manulife BlackRock International Equity Index Fund.
It’s the first time Manulife has offered seg funds with exposure to BlackRock index funds.
Portfolio management changes
Fidelity and NEI Investments have announced portfolio management changes for select funds.
Effective Jan. 5, 2026, Darren Lekkerkerker will take over from Steve MacMillan as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity American Equity Fund, the underlying fund to the Fidelity American Equity Class and Fidelity American Equity Currency Neutral Class.
At that point, MacMillan will continue to manage the Fidelity Small Cap America Fund and act as Fidelity’s director of research, a release said.
The investment objectives and strategies of the fund will remain the same, but Fidelity said there will be changes to the fund’s holdings in 2026.
“Subject to market conditions, this may result in potentially meaningful capital gains distributions to investors in Fidelity American Equity Fund at year end of 2026,” a release said.
“The capital gains distributions of Fidelity American Equity Class and Fidelity American Equity Currency Neutral Class will be deferred by a year and may change subject to market conditions.”
Lekkerkerker, who’s been with the firm since 2004, currently manages the Fidelity North American Equity Class, Fidelity Global Natural Resources Fund and the equity components of the Fidelity Canadian Balanced Fund and Fidelity Canadian Asset Allocation Fund.
On the other hand, NEI said Netherlands-headquartered Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. will become the new portfolio sub-advisor of the NEI Emerging Markets Fund around mid-January.
It’ll be taking over from U.S.-based Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC.
As a result, the fund’s investment strategy will change.
Currently, Columbia “combines a top-down and bottom-up fundamental and ESG research with quantitative tools,” identifying companies that “sustain and accelerate profitable growth, leveraging opportunities in underserved emerging-market industries,” a release said.
Under Robeco, the fund will employ a “quantitative investment approach focused on bottom-up stock selection in primarily liquid equity securities of emerging market companies.” The release added that this approach will integrate various factors “such as value, momentum, quality, analyst revisions, and short-term signals to generate stable alpha, carefully balancing responsible investing considerations alongside risk and return considerations.”
No changes are being made to the fund’s investment objectives or risk rating.