More Than Just Gold And Silver: Sprott to Launch Platinum, Palladium ETFs

Sprott Asset Management, the firm run by noted precious metals bull Eric Sprott, plans to add to its offerings of exchange-traded products by introducing an ETF backed by physical holdings of platinum and palladium. The firm announced the plans in a recent filing.

The filing said the new ETF will have an expense ratio of 0.5% with a proposed value of $115 million.

Sprott currently issues the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (NYSE: PSLV) and the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (NYSE: PHYS). Those ETFs are different from funds such as the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) and the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) in that shares of the Sprott funds can be redeemed for physical holdings of gold and silver.

PSLV holds just under $670 million in silver and trades at a 27% premium to its net asset value while PHYS holds about $2 billion worth of gold and trades at 3.23% premium to its NAV.

The Sprott platinum and palladium ETF would compete with the ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (NYSE: PPLT) and the ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (NYSE: PALL). The ETFS Physical White Metals Basket Shares (NYSE: WITE) and the ETFS Physical PM Basket Shares (NYSE: GLTR) also offer exposure to physical platinum and palladium.