Infrastructure Capital launches SPYC European active S&P 500 option-income ETF

Infrastructure Capital Advisors has launched SPYC, a European-listed active S&P 500 option-income fund that pairs stock selection with a flexible covered-call strategy, founder Jay Hatfield told ETF Express in an interview published October 9.

SPYC sits alongside NUKZ, which targets the nuclear renaissance through utilities, uranium, nuclear infrastructure and advanced reactors, and PFFI, an actively managed preferred-securities income strategy focused almost exclusively on infrastructure companies with asset-intensive businesses.

The firm manages roughly $4 billion and has built its ETF range around income, mostly through infrastructure, energy and real-asset strategies, Hatfield said. He said the firm keeps analysts covering companies, producing their own estimates and talking to management. "Hedge funds tend to be too short term because they lose their capital if they don't make money each month, but they do great in-depth research which means they can go long or short to make money," he said.

Infrastructure Capital was founded in 2012 shortly after Hatfield took NGL Energy Partners public on the NYSE in 2011, and still runs a small hedge fund. Its product line is dominated by infrastructure, particularly energy and real-asset strategies. One flagship fund, the InfraCap MLP ETF (NYSE: AMZA), was the first active MLP fund in the US with an options strategy, according to Hatfield.

Other US managers are also expanding into Europe: this publication reported in September that Morgan Stanley listed four thematic funds in Europe, taking a $16.5 billion US active-ETF platform abroad.