Nuveen, the investment manager of teacher retirement fund TIAA, is launching two actively managed exchange-traded funds that expand access to its flagship municipal bond investments.
Nuveen says in a news release that the new ETFs feature its expertise in muni credit analysis, selection, and active management. Nuveen’s municipals platform has almost $200 billion in assets under management and provides access to municipal bonds via mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts, model portfolios and an interval fund.
Municipal bonds are issued by more than 80,000 borrowers and include 1.5 million individual securities.
The two Nuveen ETFs are designed to provide tax-exempt income and meet investor demand for unlevered high yield and investment grade muni strategies, the company says.
According to Nuveen, the Nuveen High Yield Municipal Income ETF (NYSE: NHYM) primarily invests in high yield municipal bonds with opportunistic exposure to investment grade municipal securities. It seeks to maximize total return through income exempt from regular federal income taxes and capital appreciation. Its reference benchmark is the S&P Municipal Yield Index.
The second ETF, Nuveen Municipal Income ETF (NYSE: NUMI), primarily allocates to longer duration municipal bonds, mainly in investment grade securities with opportunistic exposure to below investment grade securities. It is designed to maximize total return through income exempt from regular federal income taxes and capital appreciation. Its reference benchmark is the S&P Municipal Bond Index.
“The NHYM and NUMI strategies bring two of our highest conviction active strategies to market in the wrapper that is increasingly in-demand by muni investors,” said Daniel Close, Head of Municipals at Nuveen. “NUMI directly answers the significant appetite in the market for longer duration allocations and NHYM has been created for those investors seeking additional yield.”
