MutualFundWire.com: Casey Celebrates Westwood's 1st ETF Year

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Friday, April 11, 2025

Casey Celebrates Westwood's 1st ETF Year

The folks at a 42-year-old, publicly traded asset manager in Texas are celebrating the first birthday of their first ETF.

Brian O. Casey
Westwood Holdings Group
CEO

On Tuesday (April 8), Westwood Holdings Group's [profile] Brian Casey, Greg Reid, and Parag Sanghani highlighted the first anniversary of the launch of the Westwood Salient Enhanced Midstream Income ETF (MDST on the NYSE). The fund's inception date was April 8, 2024, and it now has $76.7 million in AUM. (It is now one of five ETFs offered by Westwood.)

MDST's expense ratio is 80 basis points, as it has been since the beginning. Dallas-based Westwood Management Corp. continues to serve as MDST's investment advisor, while Vident Asset Management continues to serve as trading subadvisor.

The PM team for MDST includes:

Yin Bhuyan, senior portfolio manager at Vident;

Ted Gardner, senior vice president at Westwood;

Reid, president of real assets at Westwood;

Sanghani, SVP at Westwood;

Austin Wen, senior PM at Vident; and

Rafael Zayas, SVP and head of portfolio management and trading at Vident.

Bhuyan joined MDST's team in February 2025, while the other five PMs have been on the fund's team since inception.

Reid describes MDST's first year performance as a validation of Westwood's approach to the ETF and calls its growth "a testament to the Fund's efficacy and investor confidence in its ability to deliver results." Sanghani highlights MDST's "consistent monthly."

"The combination of dividend income and options premiums has allowed MDST to stand out in the energy investment landscape," Sanghani states.

Casey, CEO of the fund firm, hints that the Westwood team has more ETFs "on the horizon."

"As we continue to evolve, our focus remains on developing strategies that align with our clients' changing financial goals," Casey states. "We look forward to building on this momentum and seizing new opportunities within our growing ETF lineup."

MDST remains an actively managed, non-diversified series of Ultimus Managers Trust. The ETF's other service providers (unchanged since launch) include:

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) as custodian and transfer agent;

Cohen & Company, Ltd. as independent accounting firm;

Sullivan & Worcester LLP as counsel;

Ultimus Fund Solutions, LLC as administrator;

Ultimus' Northern Lights Compliance Services, LLC (NLCS) as chief compliance officer provider; and

Northern Lights Distributors, LLC as distributor.