Holdrs trustee extends period for swapping Holders for ETFs to a year

By Toni Weeks

San Diego, Dec. 16 - The Bank of New York Mellon has advised Holdrs Trusts that it has extended the period during which owners of various Holding Company Depositary Receipts, or Holdrs, can surrender their Holdrs and swap for exchange-traded funds in an exchange offer connected to the terminations of Holdrs Trusts.

The bank, which is the trustee for the Holdrs, has decided to extend the time period to one year from four months, according to a press release from Bank of America, the sponsor of the Holdrs.

As previously reported, Bank of America Merrill Lynch entered into an asset purchase agreement with Van Eck Associates Corp., under which Van Eck commenced an exchange offer for six Merrill Lynch-sponsored Holdrs, offering investors of the Holdrs to exchange their receipts for shares of new Market Vectors exchange-traded funds.

In the exchange offer,

• The Oil Service Holdrs will be exchanged for the Oil Services ETF, with the U.S. Listed Oil Services 25 index as underlier;

• The Semiconductor Holdrs will be exchanged for the Semiconductor ETF, with the U.S. Listed Semiconductor 25 index as underlier;

• The Pharmaceutical Holdrs will be exchanged for the Pharmaceutical ETF, with the U.S. Listed Pharmaceutical 25 index as underlier;

• The Biotech Holdrs will be exchanged for the Biotech ETF, with the U.S. Listed Biotech 25 index as the underlier;

• The Retail Holdrs will be exchanged for the Retail ETF, with the U.S. Listed Retail 25 index as underlier; and

• The Regional Bank Holdrs will be exchanged for the Regional Bank ETF, with the U.S. Listed Bank and Brokerage 25 index as underlier.

The exchange offers expire at 11 a.m. ET on Dec. 20.

By participating in the exchange offers, Holdrs investors will authorize the sale of securities underlying the tendered Holdrs and the purchase of other securities to conform to a diversified basket of stocks that align with the indexes underlying the new Market Vectors ETFs. Each tendered Holdrs will be exchanged for one share of the new ETF at an equivalent value.

D.F. King & Co., Inc. (800 290-6424) is the information agent for the exchange offer.

Van Eck, an investment management firm focused on global investing, is based in New York. Bank of America is based in Charlotte, N.C.

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