Published June 21, 2012

Dow Jones Newswires

Blackstone Group (BX) unit GSO Capital Partners has filed paperwork to launch the first actively managed exchange-traded fund dedicated to high-yield corporate loans, apparently sensing demand for floating-rate loans secured on company assets amid exaggerated price swings in fixed-rate “junk” bonds.

GSO, based in New York, filed preliminary registration papers for the “leveraged” loan ETF and is waiting for the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve the project. The manager of $51 billion in credit assets is acting as a sub-adviser to giant ETF provider State Street Global Advisors.

Peter Rose, a spokesman for GSO, declined to comment. Marie McGehee, a spokeswoman for State Street, also declined to comment.

According to an April 20 filing, the investment objective of the SPDR Blackstone/GSO Senior Loan ETF is to outperform a commonly used loan index, the S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100, by “normally investing at least 80% of its net assets … in senior loans.”