Here’s a look at a new industry alliance

Article Excerpt

A major change in the Canadian ETF landscape took place in January, with BlackRock Inc. and RBC Global Asset Management joining forces. The #1 and #5 Canadian providers will jointly offer 150 Canadian-listed ETFs under the RBC iShares brand with a combined $60 billion in assets under management. That translates into a roughly 38% market share. Meanwhile, another leading fund provider, Horizons, hopes to profit from emerging technological trends. We highlight both this month. RBC and ISHARES ETFs: As part of the merger, five, mostly smaller RBC ETFs will merge with larger iShares equivalent funds. The largest of the RBC funds in this group is the $405 million RBC International Equity ETF (symbol RINT) which will merge with the $2.1 billion iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI Index ETF (symbol XEF). The RBC U.S. Equity ETF (symbol RUSA) will merge with the $1.3 billion iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (symbol XUS). In addition, the RBC Emerging Markets Equity ETF will be terminated on April 5,…