KraneShares and Rockefeller Asset Management Launch Ocean Engagement ETF (KSEA), Expanding Innovative Climate Investment Lineup
New York, September 12, 2023
Rockefeller Asset Management (Rockefeller), the asset management arm of Rockefeller Capital Management, and KraneShares, a leading global ETF provider specializing in China, climate, and uncorrelated assets, today launched the KraneShares Rockefeller Ocean Engagement ETF (ticker: KSEA). The fund invests in public companies with significant impact on oceans and ocean resources, reflecting the meaningful investment opportunities within the blue economy, a subset of the ocean economy focused on solutions that are sustainable, and have ocean-positive benefits.
KSEA aims to generate competitive returns and improve ocean health through shareholder engagement activity focused on pollution prevention, carbon transition, and ocean conservation. Holdings include companies from diverse sectors such as aquaculture, commercial fishing, waste management, renewable energy, and logistics, among others.
“Our goal with KSEA is to offer investors access to the blue economy – an area of the market with significant growth potential,” said Rolando F. Morillo, Co-Portfolio Manager for Thematic Investments at Rockefeller Asset Management. “Harnessing Rockefeller’s over three decades of impact investing experience and partnerships with leading non-profit organizations for ocean conservation, including The Ocean Foundation and World Resources Institute, we pursue alpha generation for our clients and positive outcomes for ocean health.”
KSEA is sub-advised by Rockefeller, which offers significant capabilities in engagement, sustainability, and thematic investing. “At Rockefeller, constructive shareholder engagement has long been a key part of our investment process. We see significant opportunities to invest in and engage with companies striving to improve their impact on the world’s oceans,” said Jose Garza, Co-Portfolio Manager for Thematic Investments at Rockefeller Asset Management.
The blue economy is projected to expand at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030, with the global economic output of the ocean currently standing at $2.4 trillion per year.1 If the ocean were a country, it would represent the world’s seventh largest economy.1
“We are delighted to partner with Rockefeller Asset Management and add KSEA to our distinguished climate investment portfolio, enriching our offerings that already include the likes of the KraneShares Global Carbon ETF (KRBN),” said Luke Oliver, KraneShares Head of Climate Investments. “The introduction of KSEA is a significant milestone, presenting investors with a dual advantage – an opportunity to contribute to a healthier ocean ecosystem and potentially achieve superior returns from this rapidly emerging sector. We firmly believe that the companies that drive positive environmental change will be the frontrunners of economic growth, and the Rockefeller team designed KSEA specifically to tap into this potential for outperformance.”
KraneShares and Rockefeller, along with Mark Spalding from The Ocean Foundation will host a webinar on October 4th at 11AM EDT to share their insights into the blue economy and opportunities for investors. Registration is open now.
About Rockefeller Asset Management
Rockefeller Asset Management serves institutions, financial professionals, and other institutionally-minded investors through equity, fixed income, and alternative solutions that seek outperformance driven by a disciplined investment process. As part of the Rockefeller ecosystem, Rockefeller Asset Management is distinctively positioned to convene global networks to generate insights and outcomes not commonly found in the investment community. With over 30 years of intellectual capital from pioneering global investing and ESG leadership, and decades of constructive shareholder engagement, Rockefeller Asset Management is committed to delivering innovative investment products and solutions and responsive client services. As of June 30, 2023, Rockefeller Asset Management has approximately $12 billion in assets under management.
About KraneShares
KraneShares is a specialist investment manager focused on China, climate, and uncorrelated assets. KraneShares seeks to provide innovative, high-conviction, and first-to-market strategies based on the firm and its partners’ deep investing knowledge. KraneShares identifies and delivers groundbreaking capital market opportunities and believes investors should have cost-effective and transparent tools for attaining exposure to a wide variety of asset classes. The firm was founded in 2013 and currently serves institutions and financial professionals globally. The firm is a signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investing (UN PRI).
- OECD, “Why should investors care about ocean health?” 1/27/2020, www.oecd-development-matters.org
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. There can be no assurance that a Fund will achieve its stated objectives. Indices are unmanaged and do not include the effect of fees. One cannot invest directly in an index.
This information should not be relied upon as research, investment advice, or a recommendation regarding any products, strategies, or any security in particular. This material is strictly for illustrative, educational, or informational purposes and is subject to change. Certain content represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results; material is as of the dates noted and is subject to change without notice.
The Fund shares may be affected by events that adversely affect Ocean Related Companies, such as government regulation, institutional investor changes, climate changes and environmental events, new technologies, changes in consumer sentiment (particularly related to climate change) and spending and changes in government spending. Ocean Related Companies may be subject to liability for environmental damage, depletion of resources, conflicts with local communities over water rights and mandated expenditures for safety and pollution control. The Fund may underperform funds that do not invest primarily in Ocean Related Companies. Because the Fund’s strategy may be considered to be an “ESG” strategy and public opinion is strongly divided about ESG strategies, the Fund may not appeal to certain investors and may fail to attract significant assets.
The Fund will invest in companies producing and utilizing a variety of clean and emissions-reducing energy technologies and approaches, and the Sub-Adviser seeks to minimize the risk to the Fund from reliance on any particular technological approach being successful. There can be no assurance that any particular technology will be economically deployed to achieve the desired company objectives, and individual technologies implemented by companies in the pursuit of decarbonization may differ in cost and efficacy. At the time of investment by the Fund, a company may not be a low carbon emitter, but rather may be actively seeking to reduce its carbon footprint, the carbon footprint of its suppliers and/or customers, and/or develop new revenue streams from decarbonization activities.
The Fund is subject to the risk that governments globally could abandon or diminish their greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction initiatives, which may have the effect of reducing the corporate incentives to adopt clean and low-emission energy technologies and processes, resulting in less activity in this area and potentially adversely affecting the Fund.
The Fund may invest in derivatives, which are often more volatile than other investments and may magnify the Fund’s gains or losses. A derivative (i.e., futures/forward contracts, swaps, and options) is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying asset. The primary risk of derivatives is that changes in the asset’s market value and the derivative may not be proportionate, and some derivatives can have the potential for unlimited losses. Derivatives are also subject to liquidity and counterparty risk. The Fund is subject to liquidity risk, meaning that certain investments may become difficult to purchase or sell at a reasonable time and price. If a transaction for these securities is large, it may not be possible to initiate, which may cause the Fund to suffer losses. Counterparty risk is the risk of loss in the event that the counterparty to an agreement fails to make required payments or otherwise comply with the terms of the derivative.
The Fund is actively-managed and may not meet its investment objective based on the Adviser’s success or failure to implement investment strategies for the Fund. The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover rates, which may increase the Fund’s brokerage commission costs and negatively impact the Fund’s performance. The Fund is subject to non-U.S. issuers risk, which may be less liquid than investments in U.S. issuers, may have less governmental regulation and oversight, are typically subject to different investor protection standards than U.S. issuers, and the economic instability of the non-U.S. countries. Emerging markets involve heightened risk related to the same factors as well as an increase volatility and lower trading volume. Fluctuations in currency of foreign countries may have an adverse effect to domestic currency values. The Fund is new and does not yet have a significant number of shares outstanding. If the Fund does not grow in size, it will be at greater risk than larger funds of wider bid-ask spreads for its shares, trading at a greater premium or discount to NAV, liquidation and/or a trading halt.
Narrowly focused investments typically exhibit higher volatility. The Fund’s assets are expected to be concentrated in a sector, industry, market, or group of concentrations to the extent that the Underlying Index has such concentrations. The securities or futures in that concentration could react similarly to market developments. Thus, the Fund is subject to loss due to adverse occurrences that affect that concentration. KSEA is non-diversified.
In addition to the normal risks associated with investing, investments in smaller companies typically exhibit higher volatility.
ETF shares are bought and sold on an exchange at market price (not NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. However, shares may be redeemed at NAV directly by certain authorized broker-dealers (Authorized Participants) in very large creation/redemption units. The returns shown do not represent the returns you would receive if you traded shares at other times. Shares may trade at a premium or discount to their NAV in the secondary market. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. Beginning 12/23/2020, market price returns are based on the official closing price of an ETF share or, if the official closing price isn’t available, the midpoint between the national best bid and national best offer (“NBBO”) as of the time the ETF calculates the current NAV per share. Prior to that date, market price returns were based on the midpoint between the Bid and Ask price. NAVs are calculated using prices as of 4:00 PM Eastern Time.
The KraneShares ETFs and KFA Funds ETFs are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Company (SIDCO), 1 Freedom Valley Drive, Oaks, PA 19456, which is not affiliated with Krane Funds Advisors, LLC, the Investment Adviser for the Funds, or any sub-advisers for the Funds.