ETF Securities to let investors exchange shares for Royal Mint coins
ETF Securities has partnered with The Royal Mint to offer retail investors the opportunity to exchange their Gold Bullion Securities (GBS) for either Sovereigns or Britannias, Britain's pre-eminent, investment grade bullion coins produced by The Royal Mint.
ETF Securities has partnered with The Royal Mint to offer retail investors the opportunity to exchange their Gold Bullion Securities (GBS) for either Sovereigns or Britannias, Britain’s pre-eminent, investment grade bullion coins produced by The Royal Mint.
The independent provider of exchange traded commodities (ETCs) has partnered is the first ETP provider to offer such a service to investors.
The initiative was introduced to provide greater flexibility around gold investing by linking the popularity of the gold coin market with the transparency and efficiency of gold ETPs, ETF Securities said.
The Royal Mint is the world’s largest export mint company and has been producing British coins for over 1000 years. Owned by the government, it is responsible for a wide variety of minting obligations and has an established global reputation.
UK-based ETF Securities launched its gold ETF Gold Bullion Securities (GBS) in 2004. The product, listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), is backed by bars held in vaults by HSBC Bank USA, which acts as custodian, with $4.6 billion of assets under management.
The Royal Mint applies a 4.5% fee for exchange of gold coins for the securities.
Frank Spiteri (pictured), head of Retail Distribution Strategy at ETF Securities, said: “Product innovation is a key element of our philosophy and as such this partnership with The Royal Mint is a natural fit.
“It has become increasingly important to reassure investors that their securities are backed by physical gold.
“This new service enables our retail clients to switch their holding of GBS for Britannias and Sovereigns, knowing that their gold coins can be safely stored with or delivered by a UK government owned and regulated entity. Our website offers investors a number of tools to work out the indicative number of gold coins they could receive for a given number of securities.”
Shane Bissett, director of Bullion at The Royal Mint, said: “We are delighted to be working with ETF Securities on this project. The Royal Mint bullion business has been growing rapidly since 2011. As part of the offering for 2013, The Royal Mint has developed new specification bullion products that make both Sovereign and Britannia coins a compelling choice for the bullion coin market.
“The VAT-free status of gold coins in the United Kingdom, and the fact that they are capital gains tax free for UK residents, as announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is an added attraction.”
Richard Samuels, Bullion manager at The Royal Mint, further commented:
“Part of our bullion strategy at The Royal Mint is to enable existing investors in precious metals access to our bullion products through schemes such as this. We are very pleased to work with ETF Securities on this new product initiative to add a further option for clients to redeem and vault physical bullion from The Royal Mint.”
