State Street Corporation and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for State Street to acquire BBH’s Investor Services business, including its custody, accounting, fund administration, global markets and technology services, for USD3.5 billion in cash. 

News came last week that iM Global Partner, a global asset management network, has made another alliance in its US expansion by entering into a partnership with Richard Bernstein Advisors (RBA). The firm acquired a 45 per cent non-controlling stake in RBA as of July 28, 2021.

Index provider Alerian has acquired ETF Trends and ETF Database. The firm writes that in addition to providing trusted research and educational tools for financial advisers, these companies offer clients proprietary data insights on the investment community. 

Crypto ETP specialist firm 21Shares AG has established a partnership with the largest German online retail platform, comdirect, making them the sole provider of physically-backed crypto ETPs to the online broker’s savings plan program (the Spar plan).

The Swiss exchange, SIX, is acquiring ULTUMUS LTD, the London-based index and ETF data specialist. SIX writes that the acquisition is aimed at enhancing SIX’s data offering and to support its overall strategy to bring new data to its clients, making trading in ETFs more transparent and efficient for customers. The transaction closed yesterday, 12 July 2021. Financial terms of the acquisition are not disclosed.

Jersey-based CoinShares has expanded its footprint into the equities market, buying the ETF index business from Elwood Technologies.  Elwood had previously partnered with Invesco to launch the Invesco Elwood Global Blockchain Equity UCITS ETF, which provides exposure to internationally listed companies generating earnings from blockchain technology. 

FusionIQ, an investment research and technology provider, has unlocked access to over one million fixed income investment products for its clients through YieldX’s InPaas API. The InPaaS API is a portfolio construction tool that optimises fixed income ETFs and closed-end funds for a desired income or yield target with the lowest risk and expense ratio.  

Amundi is to buy Lyxor’s ETF and actively managed alternative platform from Société Générale for a total cash consideration of EUR825 million, or EUR755 million excluding excess capital, in a move that will result in Amundi becoming the European leader in ETFs with EUR142 billion in assets and a 14 per cent market share in Europe. 

WisdomTree, the exchange traded fund (ETF) and exchange traded product (ETP) sponsor, has adopted a multi-custodian model for its physically-backed bitcoin ETP following the appointment of Coinbase Custody. 

Osprey Funds, the digital asset subsidiary of REX Shares, is to spin off into an independent legal entity. The news comes on the heels of the Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC) crossing USD150 million in assets under management (AUM).