Catch up on the week's fund industry highlights with our regular Friday afternoon Fund Times. Below are some of the top stories from the week May 16-20.
Fund Launches and Changes
Fidelity International has launched Fidelity Funds China Consumer Fund to tap into rising consumerism in China. The new fund, managed by Hong Kong-based Raymond Ma, will hold companies involved in the development, manufacture or sales of goods or services to Chinese people. The portfolio will typically consist of 80-120 stocks listed in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Fidelity is clearly trying to make a splash with this launch, offering it as available for investment in an ISA and without any initial charge if investments are made in the next month. After June 20, investors will be subject to a 3.5% initial charge. The annual management charge is 1.5%.
The fund provider also created a buzz around its latest launch on Twitter, offering followers the opportunity to win various top-of-the-range electronics goods if they tweet the correct answers to various China-related questions.
LVAM’s Page and Millet have turned up at Artemis. It was recently announced that Mark Page and Laurent Millet were to part ways with Liverpool Victoria Asset Management (LVAM) and this week Artemis confirmed that the two are to join its European equity strategies business in early September and that they will manage a UCITs Artemis European Opportunities Fund, to be launched in due course. The launch remains subject to regulatory approval. Page said the fund “will be an unconstrained, long-only vehicle focused on picking the best stocks from the wealth of opportunities that Europe offers the fundamental investor.”
Aviva Investors plans to launch a US equity income fund that mirrors the River Road Dividend All-Cap Value Strategy Fund and will be managed by River Road Asset Management. Aviva Investors acquired River Road at the start of last year and it founding member, Henry W Sanders III, will manage the new fund, which will target a dividend yield 1.5% higher than the Russell 3000 Value Index.
Skandia International has launched two new funds with the aim of helping advisers outsource asset allocation, fund manager choice and investment management decisions to Skandia Investment Group (SIG). Skandia Global Dynamic Bond Fund and Skandia Defensive Fund are both managed by SIG and are designed to complement the existing three funds in the range, Skandia Aggressive, Skandia Balanced and Skandia Cautious funds. Skandia says the two latest additions cater for investors at the lower end of the risk spectrum, i.e. those seeking the least risk. All five funds are designed to maximise expected levels of returns within the five risk levels identified by Skandia’s new Portfolio Builder tool.
GAM is proposing to move its GAM Star Pharo Emerging Market Debt and FX Fund in-house, effective June1, subject to regulatory approval. The fund is currently managed by Pharo Global Advisors, but management will fall to GAM investment director Paul McNamara. Craig Wallis, global head of institutional and fund distribution at GAM, said the move should enable GAM to take advantage of in-house expertise and pass on lower fees and more frequent dealing to clients. In addition to this fund management change, GAM also proposes to make several changes to how its other Star funds invest, though the investment objectives of these funds remain unchanged.
First State Investments plans to introduce its multi-asset and multi-manager capabilities to the UK. First State’s multi-asset specialist unit Investment Solutions unit was migrated into the business earlier this year and plans to expand mutli-asset and multi-manager offerings in Asia and Australia, with further expansion into the UK and Europe a more long-term plan. First State has hired three multi-asset investment specialists from Morgan Stanley Investment Management in the Netherlands to facilitate this expansion--Jan Baars, Petr Kocourek and Epco van der Lende.
Movers and Shakers
Jack Loudoun, the manager of the Invesco Gilt fund, has resigned from Invesco. Following the news, Morningstar’s OBSR analysts have suspended the OBSR A Rating with immediate effect. Paul Mueller, who joined Invesco in 2003 and has provided secondary cover on Jack Loudoun's portfolios, will assume management of the fund. Our analysts will meet with the new manager at the earliest opportunity to review the fund.
Threadneedle American fund manager Andrew Holliman is leaving Threadneedle to join Polar Capital Management. The news prompted Morningstar analysts to suspend the fund's Superior rating and its OBSR AA Rating. The fund's management will be passed to Cormac Weldon as lead manager, supported by Stephen Moore as deputy. Weldon is also the manager of Threadneedle American Select, which has an OBSR AA Rating and our managers will meet with him as soon as possible to discuss his plans for the Threadneedle American fund.
Schroders has appointed Kate Jones as head of investment services. Jones joins from BlackRock, where she was head of structured solutions portfolio management for Europe. She will report to Alan Brown, group chief investment officer, and he appointment enhances Schroders’ “global investment management and research platform embracing all asset classes,” in the company’s words.
