When the NYSE Pickens Oil Response ETF (BOON) launched in February 2018 it had what its sponsor thought was a novel approach to energy investing: track an index tied to oil prices and fill it with both producers and end users of oil. The intent was that the former should benefit when oil prices go up and the latter could potentially benefit when oil prices go down.
The fund failed to attract assets (just $2.9 million) and performed poorly (its share price is down 17.5% since its debut).
TriLine Index Solutions, the fund’s sponsor, announced today it has relaunched the product with a new investment objective, new index provider, new fund name and new ticker symbol. The refurbished product is now the Pickens Morningstar Renewable Energy Response ETF (RENW).
The prior version tracked the modified, equal-weighted NYSE Pickens Oil Response Index using quantitative analysis to select companies from market segments with a high correlation to changes in the price of ICE Brent Crude Oil. The newfangled fund is tied to the modified equal-weighted, liquidity-adjusted Morningstar North America Renewable Energy Index spanning the full renewable energy supply chain from renewable energy innovators and suppliers to adopters and end users.
RENW aims to achieve higher risk-adjusted returns across a more diversified base of companies than other renewable energy funds, says TriLine, the index and ETF development arm of Boone Pickens Capital Fund Advisors, a Dallas-based registered investment advisor focused on energy investments. Noted energy investor T. Boone Pickens is the company’s chairman.
Seventy-five percent of the total index weight for the new ETF comprises companies with meaningful revenue from renewable energy production or participation in businesses that rely on renewable energy, such as so-called green transportation. The remaining 25% is made up of companies deemed as leaders in meeting their primary energy needs from renewable energy sources such as the sun, wind and water.
Renewable energy revenue and renewable energy usage are determined by Sustainalytics, a provider of global environmental, social and governance research and ratings.
The RENW fund’s expense ratio is 0.65%, or 20 basis points less than what the former BOON ETF charged.