The North Shore Global Uranium ETF has surpassed $125 million in assets under management (AUM) as of 3/1/21. Launched on 12/4/19, the fund has produced a cumulative return of over 119% (on a price basis) since its inception through 2/28/21.
Performance quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate, so you may have a gain or loss when shares are sold. Current performance may be higher or lower than that quoted. Shares are bought and sold at market price and not individually redeemed from the fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. Returns for periods of less than one year are not annualized.
"Despite the strong performance of uranium and uranium stocks, we believe that we are still in the early innings of a bull market for the commodity," said Tim Rotolo, CEO and Founder of North Shore Indices, the sponsor of URNM. Mr. Rotolo went on to note, "supply and demand dynamics appear favorable for uranium as miners have slashed production just as the construction and development of new nuclear energy reactors is accelerating."
Based on North Shore's research, uranium demand currently exceeds supply. Uranium prices will need to rise substantially from their current levels to induce uranium miners to reopen closed mines and to develop new mines.1 These projections do not factor in the potential for nuclear power to be a key role-player in the electrification and decarbonization efforts of the US, China and Japan, all of whom have publicly stated goals of carbon neutrality by 2035 to 2060.
URNM seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the North Shore Global Uranium Mining Index.
The index is designed to track the performance of companies that are involved in the mining, exploration, development and production of uranium as well as companies that hold physical uranium, uranium royalties or other non-mining assets.
Originally launched with a tilt toward junior miners, which may have a higher beta2 to an increase in the price of uranium, the index has increased that exposure over the past year as well as removing non-pure play miners. The market capitalization of the industry has grown in 2020 allowing for a greater selection of companies which meet the index selection criteria.
"We are gratified to see the growth of URNM over the past year which underscores our strategy of providing investors with access to products that aim to give them exposure to non-traditional sources of alpha3," said J. Garrett Stevens, CEO of Exchange Traded Concepts and advisor to the fund.
"We look forward to continuing our relationship with Tim and North Shore and to bring this exciting investment opportunity to a broader audience of investors," added Mr. Stevens.
(High short-term performance of the fund is unusual and investors should not expect such performance to be repeated.)
