Columbia Threadneedle Investments Launches Columbia Research Enhanced Real Estate ETF (CRED)

By: Columbia Threadneedle Investments via Business Wire

April 26, 2023 at 10:00 AM EDT

Strategic beta real estate ETF designed for asset allocators, based on firm’s proprietary research

Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced the expansion of its exchange-traded fund (ETF) suite with the launch of the Columbia Research Enhanced Real Estate ETF (NYSE Arca: CRED). Designed for investors seeking a thoughtfully constructed and accessible way to gain exposure to the real estate sector, the strategy incorporates the firm’s research intensity and proprietary insights in real estate in a cost-effective vehicle.

“Real estate has long played an important role in portfolio diversification, and there are many ways to access the asset class across the liquidity spectrum,” said Marc Zeitoun, Head of Strategic Beta. “With the launch of CRED, we are offering investors and allocators a differentiated, research-driven way to improve their benchmark exposures to real estate.”

CRED, which tracks a custom, proprietary index, is designed to outperform the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index¹ through research-driven security selection and modified market cap weighting that emphasizes income and geographic opportunity. This weighting approach directly addresses financial advisor preferences towards real estate investing expressed in a recent Columbia Threadneedle Investments survey², which found that income diversification and generation were among the top three reasons why financial advisors allocate to real estate. In terms of advisor due diligence, the survey also found that 9-in-10 of financial advisors consider underlying geographic exposure when investing in Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) strategies.

Managed by Christopher Lo and Henry Hom, portfolio managers in Columbia Threadneedle’s Managed and Indexed Portfolio Solutions team, CRED is designed to serve as a core allocation to the U.S. real estate sector in an investment portfolio. The ETF will track the firm’s proprietary Beta Advantage^® Lionstone Research Enhanced REIT Index, which typically consists of 70-90 REITs weighted across eight sectors, including Specialized, Industrial, Diversified, Hotel & Resort, Residential, Retail, Office, and Health Care REITs. This custom index represents the first collaboration on a strategic beta solution between Columbia Threadneedle Investments and its institutional real estate investment subsidiary, Lionstone Investments.

“Columbia Threadneedle has significant global real estate investment capabilities that span the entire capital structure, and we are committed to offering this expertise in a variety of solutions, from strategic beta to direct real estate investment, to suit specific client needs,” added Zeitoun.

CRED launches today with an expense ratio of 33 basis points. With this launch, Columbia Threadneedle now manages twelve exchange traded funds. Information about these funds can be found at https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/investment-products/exchange-traded-funds.

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2,500 people, including over 650 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage $608 billion of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.³

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP). For more information, please visit columbiathreadneedleus.com.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments (Columbia Threadneedle) is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.

About Lionstone Investments

Lionstone Investments is a data-analytics driven real estate investment firm that conceptualizes, analyzes, and executes national investment strategies using proprietary algorithms and advanced analytics to strategically pinpoint the locations where innovation, economic vitality, and productivity intersect to create sustainable and vibrant communities. Generating smart insight via sophisticated analytic tools, Lionstone is able to identify the highest concentrations of growth and productivity in the U.S. economy. This unique approach finds durable growth and resilient income in a rapidly evolving world. Lionstone Investments is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. Please visit our website at: LionstoneInvestments.com.

¹The FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index is a free-float adjusted, market capitalization-weighted index of U.S. equity REITs. Constituents of the index include all tax-qualified REITs with more than 50 percent of total assets in qualifying real estate assets other than mortgages secured by real property.

²Columbia Threadneedle Investments Real Estate ETF Survey conducted between February and March 2023 of 152 financial advisors from external firms.

³As of March 31, 2023.

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fund before investing. To obtain a prospectus containing this and other important information, please visit https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/etf to view or download a prospectus. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC serves as the investment manager to the ETFs. The ETFs are distributed by ALPS Distributors, Inc., which is not affiliated with Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC, Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc. or its parent company Ameriprise Financial, Inc. Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.

Investing involves risks, including the risk of loss of principal. Market risk may affect a single issuer, sector of the economy, industry or the market as a whole. Like real estate, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are subject to illiquidity, valuation and financing complexities, taxes, default, bankruptcy and other economic, political or regulatory occurrences. As a non-diversified fund, fewer investments could have a greater effect on performance. The fund is passively managed and seeks to track the performance of an index. There is no guarantee that the index and, correspondingly, the fund will achieve positive returns. Risk exists that the index provider may not follow its methodology for index construction. Errors may result in a negative fund performance. The fund's net asset value will generally decline when the market value of its targeted index declines. The fund concentrates its investments in issuers of one or more particular industries to the same extent as the underlying index. Investments in a narrowly focused sector may exhibit higher volatility than investments with a broader focus. Investments selected using quantitative methods may perform differently from the market as a whole and may not enable the fund to achieve its objective. Investment in larger companies may involve certain risks associated with their larger size and may be less able to respond quickly to new competitive challenges than smaller competitors. Although the fund's shares are listed on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active, liquid or otherwise orderly trading market for shares will be established or maintained.

This fund is new and has limited operating history.

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