01/02/2012 Author: Elana Margulies

Sprott Silver Trust fund completes second close

Sprott Asset Management, the $9.1bn Canada-based investment manager, has completed its second close of the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV) this month, raising $350m, HFMWeek has learned.

The trust, one of the manager’s three NYSE-listed closed-end funds,  invests and holds substantially all of its assets in physical and silver bullion.

“We are big believers in silver and precious metals because of what is happening in currencies, deficits and economies,” said founder Eric Sprott.

The money for PSLV was raised by a syndicate led by Morgan Stanley and RBC. It initially listed on the NYSE in November 2010 as an initial public offering, which raised $500m.

Additionally, this month the firm filed its third closed-end offering, the Sprott Physical Platinum and Palladium Fund, on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The structure, a bullion- holding trust to hold physical metal, is similar to the PSLV and the firm’s Sprott Physical Gold Trust.