Martin Currie mothballs launch plans

Fund Strategy - 18 Jun 2012 | By Gary Jackson

The asset manager says some requirements under Ucits IV have prompted it to review the potential products it was considering launching offshore.

In a prospectus dated December last year, the company said it could apply to list another eight funds on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. (article continues below)

Six of the planned products - Martin Currie GF Global Alpha, Global Infrastructure, Omnium Absolute Alpha, Global Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) Absolute Alpha, Global Energy Absolute Alpha and Global Financials Absolute Alpha funds - were removed from the latest prospectus.

Martin Currie says the introduction of key investor information (KII) has been the “catalyst” for a review of its Sicav range. Ucits IV requires asset managers to produce KII documents for every share class and in several languages, even for funds that have not yet been launched.

“Given that this takes significant effort we have withdrawn funds from approval when we are certain that no launch is likely,” a spokesperson for the group says.

The remaining proposed fund - the Martin Currie GF Greater China Absolute Alpha fund - is still included in the latest prospectus as having the potential to be listed in Luxembourg.

Martin Currie does not have immediate plans to launch the product. The eighth proposed fund - the Martin Currie GF Global Emerging Markets funds - was launched for Kim Catechis, Alastair Reynolds and Divya Mathur on December 15.

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