State Street Investment Management and Ninety One have entered a strategic partnership to launch a range of actively managed exchange traded funds aimed at investors across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
The firms said the partnership will initially focus on actively managed global equity and emerging market UCITS ETFs, with additional products expected to follow across developed and emerging market asset classes.
The agreement brings together State Street Investment Management’s ETF platform, product structuring capability, and global distribution network with Ninety One’s active investment strategies across global equities, specialist fixed income, and emerging markets.
The partnership comes amid continued growth in demand for actively managed ETFs globally, including in the EMEA region, as investors seek broader diversification beyond US equities during a period of geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, State Street cited data showing that assets under management in EMEA-domiciled active ETFs have increased by 11.6% to date in 2026, with particularly strong growth in global equity and emerging market equity funds.
The initial product launches will focus on actively managed global equity and emerging market UCITS ETFs.
UCITS, short for Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities, is the European regulatory framework governing collective investment funds. UCITS-compliant ETFs operate under rules relating to diversification, liquidity, and investor protection, allowing them to be marketed widely across Europe and other international markets.
ETFs have traditionally been associated with passive investing, where funds track market indices. The State Street IM and Ninety One partnership, however, is centred on actively managed ETFs, where portfolio managers actively select investments rather than simply replicate an index.
Thabo Khojane (pictured), the managing director of Ninety One, said the partnership reflected increasing recognition of active investment management capabilities in more complex global markets.
State Street Investment Management chief executive Yie-Hsin Hung said the partnership expands on an existing relationship between the two firms and is intended to broaden access to investment opportunities across developed and emerging markets.
State Street Investment Management, the asset management division of State Street Corporation, manages more than $5 trillion in assets and operates across 60 countries. The company has been active in index investing and ETF markets for decades and said it would use its global scale and ETF infrastructure to bring the new strategies to market.
Ninety One was founded in South Africa in 1991 as Investec Asset Management and demerged from Investec in 2020. The firm manages £171.8 billion in assets and focuses on active investment strategies across equities, fixed income, multi-asset, and alternatives.
The partnership with State Street follows the implementation of Sanlam’s strategic transaction with Ninety One, which formally came into effect in February this year.
Sanlam and Ninety One announced in March 2025 that key operative agreements had been executed to implement a transaction between the two parties, signalling Sanlam’s exit from active asset management in South Africa and the UK, with Ninety One assuming responsibility for the relevant businesses and mandates.
The transaction was implemented in stages between 2025 and 2026, including the transfer of Sanlam Investment Management and Sanlam Investments UK’s active asset management business to Ninety One entities in South Africa and the UK.
The South African leg of the transaction was finalised on 2 February this year following regulatory approval. The arrangement covered around R400bn in assets and resulted in Sanlam acquiring a 12.5% stake in Ninety One as part of a 15-year strategic relationship.
