Fund Times: November 22-26
HSBC makes a number of alterations to its GIF range; Martin Currie hires healthcare manager; Invesco merges funds; Schroder plans to add to its Income Maximiser range; T Bailey proposes fund merger.
HSBC Global Asset Management is making changes to some funds in its GIF range, which includes reducing fees. At the beginning of next year any funds under the Sinopia or Halbis banner will rebranded HSBC and the in-house managers will be integrated into HSBC Global Asset Management by the end of the year. HSBC’s US Dollar Core Plus Bond fund will be called US Dollar Bond and have full UCITS III powers, enabling it to invest in derivatives. Other tweaks to strategies include the ability to take foreign currency risk against the US dollar at the Global High Income fund while the Brazil Bond fund will see a removal of its restriction on maximum investments into Brazilian government debt. Furthermore Global Core Plus Bond and Euro Core Bond will be renamed Global Bond and Euro Bond respectively while the New World Income fund will called GEM Debt Total Return. In the equity space, the European Equity Alpha and GEM Equity Alpha funds are to be rebranded European Equity Absolute Return and GEM Equity Absolute Return respectively while Euro Core Credit and Global Core Credit bond fund will be called Euro Credit and Global Credit. The fees on the retail share classes of Euro Credit and Global Credit will be cut by 10 basis points while the charges for Euro High Yield Bond fund will be reduced by 20 basis points. However, the management fee for the Global Emerging Markets Bond fund will be increased by 25 basis points for new investors.
Martin Currie Hires Healthcare Manager
Andrea Bici has joined Martin Currie as a senior healthcare manager. She arrives from Schroder’s US small and mid cap equity team which is based in New York and headed by Jenny Jones. Bici has around 13 years healthcare experience and she was previously an analyst in the healthcare sector at Credit Suisse First Boston and Salomon Smith Barney before joining Schroders.
Invesco Merges Funds
Invesco will be merging their US Equity fund into the Invesco US Structured Equity fund and Invesco Global Telecom is to be merged into the Invesco Global Technology fund. Shareholders of the US equity fund approved the merger in October and the effective date is 26 November 2010; both funds are currently managed by the same team which is based in New York. The Global Telecom and Global Technology funds are also managed by the same investment advisor based in the US and Invesco expects the mergers to have a positive effect on the total expense ratios. All the expenses related to the mergers have been paid for by Invesco.
T Bailey Proposes Fund Merger
T Bailey is proposing to merge its £9 million Equity Income into its larger T Bailey Growth fund; both funds are managed by the firm’s chief investment officer Jason Britton. There will be an extraordinary general meeting of unitholders in the Equity Income fund to be held on 22 December and following an approval the funds will be merged on 21 January 2011.
Schroder Plans to Add to Its Income Maximiser Range
Subject to FSA approval, Schroders will be launching the Schroder Global Property Income Maximiser fund in February 2011. The fund will be managed by Thomas See but stock selection will be provided by Jim Rehlaender – manager of the Schroder Global Property Securities fund – and Al Otero; the portfolio will typically feature higher yielding global property securities and real estate investment trusts. See will target a 7% yield annual yield using a covered call option overlay as applied on the Schroder Income and Asian Income Maximiser funds.
