The Nottingham Company Licenses Blue Tractor’s Shielded Alpha℠ ETF Structure

The Nottingham Company, Inc. (“Nottingham”), a leading fund services administrator to the mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) industry, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a license agreement with New York-based Blue Tractor Group, LLC (“Blue Tractor”) for their novel Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure. Through this agreement, sub-advisors managing active portfolio strategies will be able to issue their own branded Shielded Alpha℠ ETFs through Nottingham’s white-label ETF investment advisor affiliate, OBP Capital LLC.

Kip Meadows, Founder and CEO of Nottingham, commented, “We are pleased to have entered into a license with Blue Tractor. Our research into the new non-transparent vehicles convinced us that the Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure offers unique features and benefits to advisors and investors alike. We believe the strong growth seen with actively managed ETFs will continue and we are happy to be able to offer current and prospective clients of Nottingham access to this unique ETF wrapper.”

Blue Tractor’s Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure is a ‘wrapper’ that facilitates management of actively managed portfolio strategies within an ETF rather than in a traditional mutual fund or separately managed account, thereby conferring the benefits of an ETF to advisors and investors alike, including lower cost, greater tax efficiency and intra-day liquidity. However, Blue Tractor’s proprietary structure fully obfuscates an advisor’s alpha generation strategy and trading execution. Exemptive relief from the SEC permitting the Shielded Alpha℠ ETF wrapper was issued on December 10, 2019.

Nottingham is a fund administration firm and white-label ETF issuer headquartered in Rocky Mount, N.C. providing consulting and ongoing accounting and administration for pooled investment vehicles including open end mutual funds, ETFs, closed end interval funds, private investment and hedge funds. The firm also offers unitized accounting and reporting solutions to foundations, endowments, and government investment pools.

Nottingham was founded in the late 1980s to help investment advisory and portfolio management firms gain efficiency and access to new markets with pooled investment vehicles. Nottingham’s business plan has always been to help investment professionals focus on portfolio management, with Nottingham guiding the establishment and ongoing operations of the pooled vehicles. Currently administers approximately $30 billion in client assets for investment funds all over the U.S. Nottingham remains one of the largest privately held fund administration firms in the U.S.

Nottingham affiliate OBP Capital LLC was established to assist Nottingham clients with ETFs, holding exemptive orders for both active and passive ETF structures. OBP Capital provides the oversight and compliance management necessary to effectively operate as an ETF investment advisor, and does not compete in any way with the subadvisor portfolio managers in Nottingham administered ETFs.

Commented Terry Norman, Founder of Blue Tractor, “We are very pleased to enter into a relationship with Nottingham as we have been long impressed by the value Kip Meadows and his team brings to advisors. We know there are many active managers now using a traditional mutual fund that are keen to explore the benefit of porting their alpha strategy into to an ETF wrapper. Through Nottingham’s turnkey OBP Capital series trust advisors can access the unique benefits of our Shielded Alpha℠ wrapper.”

About The Nottingham Company, Inc.

The Nottingham Company, Inc. has been serving the fund accounting, administration, organization, and management needs of clients nationwide for over three decades. Based in Eastern North Carolina, Nottingham delivers a full range of turnkey services, handling clients’ behind-the-scenes financial and administrative operations so they can focus on managing their portfolios. More information is available at ncfunds.com.

About Blue Tractor Group

Blue Tractor Group, LLC develops proprietary solutions to facilitate novel exchange-traded fund products. Blue Tractor’s Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure (patent pending) permits active fund management within an ETF wrapper, while fully obfuscating an advisor’s proprietary alpha strategy. The SEC permitted the exemptive relief for Blue Tractor’s ETF wrapper on December 10, 2019. More information is available at bluetractorgroup.com.

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