ProShares Starts Fund to Track Private-Equity Investments

ProShares, a provider of exchange- traded funds specializing in alternative investments, started an ETF designed to track the performance of companies that invest in private equity.

ProShares Global Listed Private Equity ETF (PEX), which debuted today, tracks an index of companies whose primary business is direct investments in private equity, the Bethesda, Maryland- based firm said today in a press release. The index, the LPX Direct Listed Private Equity Index, is a portfolio of as many as 30 firms and excludes companies whose primary business is private-equity fund management.

The new ETF “offers access to global private equity with the liquidity, transparency and cost effectiveness of an ETF,” ProShares Chief Executive Officer Michael L. Sapir, said in the release.

ProShares had 139 ETFs with $21.9 billion in assets as of Jan. 31, according to Boston-based State Street Corp. (STT) ETFs typically track indexes and trade throughout the day like stocks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Stein in Boston at cstein4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net