Despite Grail bail, subadviser aims to stick in active-ETF biz

In the wake of last week's announcement that Columbia Management Investment Advisers LLC is buying Grail Advisors LLC, one of Grail's partners is still making plans to go it alone with active ETFs. RiverPark Advisors LLC, which advised two active ETFs for Grail, already filed for exemptive relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission early last year to launch its own active ETFs, said Morty Schaja, RiverPark's chief executive. “We wanted to be in control over our own destiny,” he said. Given Grail's decision to throw in with Columbia — and throw over its subadvisers — the move now looks fairly prudent. RiverPark has filed for exemptive relief to launch a small-cap-growth active ETF and a high-yield ETF, similar to mutual funds it has, Mr. Schaja said. But given the market, RiverPark instead may decide to launch similar ETFs to what it has now with Grail, he said. Currently, RiverPark advises the Grail RP Growth ETF Ticker: (RPX).and the Grail RP Focused Large Cap Growth ETF Ticker:(RWG), which have $18.2 million in combined assets. That's the majority of Grail's $23 million in assets under management. As reported by InvestmentNews last week, RiverPark will be replaced by Columbia as the manager of these ETFs by the end of May. RiverPark will not launch sector-based actively managed ETFs like the Grail RP Financials Ticker: (RFF) and Grail RP Technology Ticker: (RPQ), which closed in August because they weren't gaining traction. “I no longer believe it makes sense to have sector-based active ETFs,” Mr. Schaja said. “People who are looking to buy ETFs within a sector are index players.” Still, Mr. Schaja said he has faith in active exchange-traded funds. “I still believe that active ETFs make sense,” he said, “but we are going to tread slowly.”