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O’Leary of Shark Tank Brands Bigger Pool of ETF Products

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The summer interns at MarketsMuse had already voted “Shark Tank” as their favorite TV show,  so it was no surprise that our senior curators took their cue to advance the latest news from Kevin O’Leary, the celeb entrepreneur and more recently, an ETF aficionado who has extended his brand to the world of exchange-traded fund (ETF) products under the O’Shares Investment umbrella.

(Bloomberg) — Kevin O’Leary is out to carve a niche for himself in the world of exchange-traded funds.

The chairman of O’Shares Investments and Shark Tank personality has filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch 17 ETFs. All the proposed offerings have “quality” in the name and would employ a passive investing approach. The investable universe of these funds includes emerging-market equities, small-cap U.S. stocks, preferred shares, and even corporate credit.

“It’s rare for an indie shop like this to put this many funds on one filing,” said Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

O’Leary’s celebrity status and the application of smart-beta strategies to fixed income could help the Canadian businessman differentiate himself and attract assets in what’s becoming a crowded ETF space, with roughly 60 issuers in the U.S. The “quality” designation suggests O’Leary’s ETFs will put a priority on conservative factors, which are in vogue as the bull market enters its eighth year.

O’Shares’ most popular current offering, the FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend ETF (NYSE ARCA: OUSA), has $240.5-million in assets and has outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year:

Details on expense ratios or fees for O’Shares‘ proposed ETFs weren’t included in the preliminary prospectus. The FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend ETF has an expense ratio of 0.48 percent, which is roughly in line with that of other smart beta offerings.

Earlier this year, O’Leary indicated that he was considering a run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada after former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories lost the 2015 federal election to the Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau.