The two companies have launched a cooperation for the manufacturing and distribution of structured products.

Leonteq Securities AG (Leonteq) and Saxo Bank A/S (Saxo) have launched a cooperation for the manufacturing and distribution of structured products.

Partnering with Leonteq marks a significant step for Saxo Bank in expanding our structured investment product offerings, especially for our rapidly growing Swiss client base - Kim Fournais, Saxo Bank

As part of this cooperation, Saxo will become a sponsor under a standardised white-labelling issuance model established by Leonteq and will be responsible for the distribution of the Danish bank's guaranteed structured products to its client base.

At the same time, Leonteq has received an international distribution mandate from Saxo Bank to access Leonteq’s global distribution network. The first Saxo guaranteed structured products are expected to be available on Leonteq’s platform in the course of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

In addition, Leonteq will add Saxo Bank to its network of execution brokers and will seek to leverage on the bank's trading capabilities 'to access capital markets in a cost-efficient manner'. Leonteq also intends to add Saxo guaranteed structured products to its LYNQS platform.

'Partnering with Leonteq marks a significant step for Saxo Bank in expanding our structured investment product offerings, especially for our rapidly growing Swiss client base,' said Kim Fournais (pictured), CEO of Saxo Bank.

'[Our] clients will benefit from an even bigger product universe that further enhances their investment choices and access to global markets, while Leonteq will leverage our cutting-edge technology and robust infrastructure for trading and hedging activities.'

RAFI Indices launches 'rejects' gauge, lists first ETF

RAFI Indices, the index company of Research Affiliates, has launched its first ETF, the Research Affiliates Deletions ETF (NIXT) in partnership with ETF Architect.

Companies that are deleted from popular market indices are often unloved, have fallen out of favour and are no longer valuable enough to be deemed important - Rob Arnott, Research Affiliates

NIXT tracks the Research Affiliates Deletions Index, an index designed to capitalise on the long-term price reversal of companies removed from market capitalisation weighted indices. NIXT uses a passive indexing approach and will begin trading on 10 September.

The Research Affiliates Deletions Index is a contrarian small value strategy that seeks to take advantage of persistent long-term mean reversion by selecting companies removed from capitalisation-weighted US indices, while screening for quality.

The strategy selects securities that drop out of the top 500 or top 1000 US companies by market capitalisation and holds those names for five years in an equal-weight portfolio, rebalancing annually.

The strategy uses RAFI Indices' own proprietary cap-weight 500 and cap-weight 1000 indices to select index deletions from. To reduce turnover, 10% banding is used, so that a stock must fall out of roughly the top 550 or 1100 names before is treated as a deletion.

'Companies that are deleted from popular market indices are often unloved, have fallen out of favour and are no longer valuable enough to be deemed important,' said Rob Arnott (above right), chairman and founder of Research Affiliates. 'Perhaps somewhat counterintuitive, these companies have historically outperformed the companies that replace them in the years that follow their deletion.'

The decision to sponsor the new ETF was driven 'by a desire to make the index deletions strategy as accessible as possible', said Arnott.

NSE launches new multicap momentum quality 50 Index

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has launched the Nifty500 Multicap Momentum Quality 50 index which has been designed to track the performance of large, mid, and small-cap stocks that exhibit both momentum and quality characteristics.

The Nifty500 Multicap Momentum Quality 50 index is constructed by selecting 50 stocks from the Nifty 500 universe based on a combination of momentum and quality factors, and it is 'targeted at providers of passive investment products such as ETFs, index funds and structured products', according to the exchange.

The momentum score for each company is determined based on its six-month and 12-month price return, adjusted for volatility. The quality score for each company is determined based on return on equity (ROE), financial leverage (Debt/Equity Ratio) and earnings (EPS) growth variability analysed during the previous five years.

The index is rebalanced semi-annually, and stock weights are capped at five percent. The index is heavily weighted toward Capital Goods (29.89%) and Financial Services (21.23%), with other significant sectors including Automobile and Auto Components (11.62%), Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels (10.05%), and Healthcare (6.55%).

In terms of performance, the index has delivered a robust 71.04% return over the past year and a 32.49% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past five years.

Solactive deploys new indices via ETFs in Canada

Solactive has extended its collaboration with Canada's Evolve ETFs with the launch of the Solactive Canada Utility Index which serves as the underlying of the Evolve Canada Utility ETF listed on 4 September on the Toronto Stock Exchange. 

The Solactive Canada Utility Index consists of the largest Canadian companies in the utility sector, and it's aimed at offering diversified exposure across the portfolio by equally weighting each component.

The index first selects the top four companies by free float market capitalisation from each of the three key categories: utilities, pipelines, and telecommunications. Subsequently, the ten remaining companies with the highest free-float market capitalisation across all sectors are selected. The index is rebalanced quarterly to maintain a mix of established market leaders and evolving players within the Canadian broader utility landscape.

The ETF will employ Evolve ETFs' actively managed covered call strategy "and modest 25% leverage to provide investors with enhanced, tax-efficient income," said Raj Lala (right), president and CEO at Evolve ETFs

… and South Korea

In Korea, KB Asset Management has launched the KB RISE Japan Samurai Sector TOP4 Plus ETF tracking the new Solactive Japan Samurai Sector TOP4 Plus Index. The ETF is available for trading on the Korea Stock Exchange.

The Solactive Japan Samurai Sector TOP4 Plus Index tracks the performance of the four leading sectors and other outstanding companies in Japan. The top four sectors are selected based on their growth and momentum factors to ensure that only the most dynamic and high-potential large-to-mid-cap companies are included.

These sectors can make up to 80% of the index, allowing investors to gain concentrated exposure to potential high-upside industries. While the index aims to select four stocks per leading sector to increase further diversification, the remaining weight is composed of the top-ranked stocks by free-float market capitalization in sectors other than the leading four. Final index constituents are then also weighted by free-float market capitalisation.

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