Morgan Stanley Investment Management Expands ETF Platform with Eaton Vance Floating-Rate Strategy

• Morgan Stanley Investment Management launches Eaton Vance Floating-Rate ETF (Ticker: “EVLN”), the twelfth ETF strategy since February 2023, listed on NYSE.
• EVLN seeks high current income with 80% floating-rate credit investments, managed by MSIM’s loan management team, complementing its active fixed income ETF offerings.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (“MSIM”) announced the launch of its latest ETF, Eaton Vance Floating-Rate ETF (Ticker: “EVLN”), an actively managed senior loan strategy. EVLN is the twelfth ETF strategy brought to market since the launch of MSIM’s ETF platform in February 2023 and is listed on the NYSE.

“We are pleased to expand MSIM’s ETF Platform with EVLN and continue to deepen our offering with strategies that reflect our differentiated investment capabilities and client-focused approach,” said Anthony Rochte, Global of Head of ETFs at MSIM. “A pioneer in senior loan investment management, the industry-leading team established its loan platform thirty-five years ago and today manages over $30 billion in client assets globally. This strategy makes use of that deep loan market expertise and the in-demand ETF structure to meet the needs of a broader range of income clients.”

The actively managed EVLN will seek to provide a high level of current income through a portfolio comprised no less than 80% in floating-rate credit investments, the majority of which are expected to be the floating-rate corporate term loans at the center of the team’s investment capability. Supporting allocations to high-yield bonds and collateralized loan obligation debt tranches will broaden the opportunity set. The strategy will be managed by MSIM’s investment team dedicated exclusively to loan management, delivering the same approach to credit management and portfolio construction employed in the team’s mutual funds and other vehicles.

“EVLN delivers our longstanding approach to loan investing in a tradable format,” said Andrew Sveen, portfolio manager, Head of Floating-Rate Loans and Chairman of MSIM Fixed Income. “The strategy combines our time-tested bottom-up approach with the additional tax benefits and intra-day liquidity that the ETF structure provides.”

This latest ETF complements the existing MSIM active fixed income ETF offering which includes: Calvert Ultra-Short Investment Grade ETF (CVSB), Eaton Vance Ultra-Short Income ETF (EVSB), Eaton Vance High Yield ETF (EVHY) and Eaton Vance Intermediate Municipal Income (EVIM.) MSIM launched its ETF platform in February 2023 with six Calvert-branded ETFs and expanded the platform in October 2023 with one Parametric-branded alternative income strategy, one Parametric-branded hedged equity strategy, and the three Eaton Vance-branded fixed income strategies. The platform has over $600 million in assets under management as of February 2, 2024.

Source: Morgan Stanley