Apr. 14, 2011 (Business Wire) -- Millennium announced today that it had led a $70 million secondary share purchase in the equity of ETF Securities Limited (ETFS), a world leader in creating and managing Exchange Traded Products (ETPs).
"As the largest independent global exchange traded fund provider, ETF Securities is at the core of one of the most rapidly growing markets in the history of financial services," said Sam Schwerin, Managing Partner of Millennium. "We believe our investment in ETFS stands to benefit from three important long-term trends that are transforming the asset management industry: the secular shift of institutional and retail investment assets into exchange traded products; the move toward more cost-effective, transparent and innovative products that provide access to and track important themes and sectors; and the emergence of commodities as an asset class of growing importance within diversified portfolios. With ETFS, we were able to identify the leader in creating the kind of products most desired by the markets, especially in metals and other commodities."
Max Chee, who led Millennium's investment, noted "ETFS is synonymous with innovation. Led by CEO Graham Tuckwell, the company created the world's first physical gold ETF, the first oil ETF, and a long list of other innovative metals and commodities related exchange traded products. Today, the company is a recognized leader in commodities ETPs in Europe and is an emerging force in the U.S., with the recent launch of its physical-backed precious metals products, including gold vaulted in Switzerland (SGOL) and Asia (AGOL), silver (SIVR), platinum (PPLT) and palladium (PALL). The company's growth has been tremendous. Assets under management (AUM) have grown from under $7 billion at the start of 2009 to $27 billion today, an increase of $20 billion in a little over two years. ETFS has an exceptional and diversified product portfolio, a world class team, and exciting new products in the pipeline that should continue to drive significant growth in AUM."
Graham Tuckwell, CEO of ETF Securities, commented, "Following discussions with a number of potential purchasers, Millennium emerged as a strong partner to our capital structure, providing liquidity to those who desire it at this stage of our development and demonstrating a strong ability to add value to our business over the long term as we continue our rapid growth and development."
Millennium has made a series of successful investments over the last two years as a result of its sector initiative in new financial markets and technologies. Prior investments in this theme included NetSpend (NASDAQ: NTSP) and Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT), both of which went public last year, as well as PlaySpan, which was acquired earlier this year by Visa (NYSE: V).