Fund Times: October 25-29
Investec raises annual charges; BNY Mellon launches new infrastructure fund; Legg Mason merges UK Income fund; Lazard manages emerging market fund capacity
Investec Asset Management has increased its annual management charge for five of its funds. The AMC for the Investec Managed Distribution fund has risen from 1.25% to 1.5% while the charges for their Strategic Bond and Global Bond funds have increased from 0.75% to 1%. The annual costs for Investec Monthly High Income will also rise from 0.95% to 1.25%. However, the firm has reduced the annual charge the Investec Target Return fund by 25 basis points to 1.25%.
BNY Mellon launches new infrastructure fund
BNY Mellon Asset Management has launched the long-only BNY Mellon Latin American Infrastructure fund which will be run by one of their management boutiques, BNY Mellon ARX Investimentos, which is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fund will use a strategy that combines macroeconomic analysis with fundamental bottom-up analysis and look to benefit from the growing number of infrastructure projects that are planned for the region. The managers aim to beat the MSCI Latin America 10/40 Index over a three to four-year period with equal or lower volatility by targeting companies in the capital goods, transportation, steel, telecommunications and energy industries. The managers will construct a fairly concentrated portfolio of 35-50 stocks and focus on the key regions of Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Peru.
Lazard manages emerging market fund capacity
Following notification earlier in the year, Lazard is soft-closing the UK-domiciled Lazard Emerging Markets fund and the Dublin-domiciled Lazard Emerging Markets Equity fund from 1 November 2010. The firm is increasing the minimum investment of the institutional share classes to £1 million and also introducing an initial charge of 3%. Investors in the retail share classes will be required to pay the full initial charge of 3.75%, the full annual management charge of 1.5% and no commission will be paid on new investments, either initial or renewal.
Legg Mason merges UK Income fund
The £7.6m Legg Mason UK Income fund has been merged into their Global Equity Income offering. The funds were managed by different units of Legg Mason’s operation. The quantitative outfit Batterymarch was previously in charge of the UK income fund and the combined Global Equity Income offering will be continue to be run by Legg Mason’s qualitative subsidiary Global Currents.