Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) launched the JUST U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF in partnership with S&C client JUST Capital Foundation, an independent charitable research organization. The ETF began trading on the NYSE Arca on June 13 and ended its first day of trading with more than $250 million in assets, making it the most successful ETF incorporating environmental, social and governance criteria in investment decisions, and one of the top 10 equity ETF launches ever according to GSAM. S&C advised JUST Capital in its negotiations with GSAM, FTSE Russell and its various data providers and has advised JUST generally in connection with its operation as a charitable organization since inception.
The ETF tracks JUST Capital’s JUST U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index, which is a market capitalization weighted index that consists of the top ranked 50 percent of companies within the Russell 1000 by industry, based on the most recent rankings by JUST Capital. JUST Capital’s rankings are based on a variety of “just” factors identified as important to the American public through annual polling. JUST Capital was co-founded in 2013 by Paul Tudor Jones II together with several others.
The S&C team representing JUST Capital was led by Jib Black, Donald Crawshaw, Mehdi Ansari and Nelle Jennings, along with Justin Orr, Mark Horosko, Matthew Rosenberg and Karina VanHouten, with valuable assistance from Frederick Wertheim and Whitney Chatterjee.