ProShares plans ProShares Listed Private Equity, Merger Arbitrage

By Toni Weeks

San Diego, March 28 - ProShares Trust announced it is planning to add two new series, the ProShares Listed Private Equity and the ProShares Merger Arbitrage, according to an N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Merger Arbitrage fund will seek investment results that track the performance, before fees and expenses, of a merger arbitrage index, which the exchange-traded fund has not yet selected. The index will provide exposure to a merger arbitrage strategy by capturing the spread, if any, between the price at which the stock of a company trades after a proposed acquisition of that company is announced and the price the acquiring company has proposed to pay for the target company.

According to the filing, a spread typically exists between these two prices due to the uncertainty that the merger or acquisitions will close or that, if it does close, it will be at the initially proposed economic terms. In successful transactions, this spread should approach zero by the closing date of the transaction, resulting in a gain to strategies such as the index, which aims to capture the spread.

Ryan Dofflemeyer will be the portfolio manager.

The Listed Private Equity fund will seek investment results that track the performance, before fees and expenses, of a listed private equity index, which the fund has not yet selected. The index will seek to track the performance of leading publicly listed companies in the private equity space, excluding real estate income companies, property trusts and companies whose primary business is in energy exploration, transportation or mining.

Alexander Ilyasov will be the portfolio manager.

Investment advisory fees and total annual operating expenses have not yet been determined. There will be a contractual agreement with the investment adviser, Bethesda, Md.-based ProShare Advisors LLC, to waive or reimburse some fees.

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