The marijuana-focused ETF marketplace is about to get slightly smaller again. Today, unitholders of the Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers Index (NEO: HMJR) approved the merger of the fund with that of the Horizons US Marijuana Index ETF (NEO: HMUS). The consolidation follows a proposal made in late January by the manager of both electronically traded funds (ETF).
The merger of the two funds is anticipated to occur at the end of the month, on February 28. Current unitholders of HMJR have until February 26 to redeem their units, otherwise they will be rolled into that of the HMUS fund which is primarily focused on US cannabis operators. The basis for the merger was largely related to the larger capitalization of the firms US fund, and the likelihood that current HMJR unitholders likely wanted to remain with exposure to the cannabis markets.
The Horizons US Marijuana Index is a significantly larger fund, enabling the index to have access to better capitalized firms that operate within the life sciences segment with a focus on cannabis operators. The US index will remain with its current name, and will contain to trade under the HMUS ticker, in both Canadian and US Dollar denominations, with the US variant trading under ticker “HMUS.u”.
Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers Index held approximately $2.94 million in net assets as of the close of markets. Comparatively, Horizons US Marijuana Index held assets of approximately $16.8 million.
The merger of the two cannabis indexes follows the announcement last month by that of Evolve ETFs that the firm would be closing both its SEED and USMJ index funds, both of which were focused on the cannabis industry.
Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index (TSX: HMMJ) remains the largest index within the space, with the ETF holding $449.6 million in assets as of today’s close.
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