Henderson to "rationalise" fund range
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Henderson Global Investors has announced that it is to merge a number of funds as part of the acquisitions of New Star and Gartmore in recent years.
Bill McQuaker
The fund “rationalisation” will take in two phases beginning in May, subject to investor approval.
*As part of the first part of the rationalisation, the £43m Henderson Diversified Absolute Return fund will be renamed as the Henderson Multi-Manager Diversified fund and move from the IMA Specialist sector into the IMA Mixed Investment 0%-35% sector. It will be managed by head of multi-asset Bill McQuaker and Paul Craig and see its investment objective change from absolute return to total return.
*The Henderson Higher Income fund will also be restructured to invest in global equities as the Henderson Global Equity Income fund, moving from the IMA UK Equity Income sector to the IMA Global Equity Income sector. The fund will be managed by Ben Lofthouse and current manager Andrew Jones, although Graham Kitchen has been dropped as a manager.
Both restructings are expected to come into effect on May 8, if approved.
*The £3.8m Henderson European Value fund, managed by Nick Sheridan, is to merge with the £839.2m Henderson European Growth fund and will be managed by Richard Pease & Simon Rowe.
*The £133.8m Henderson US Opportunities fund will merge into the £339.3m Henderson US Growth fund and wil be managed by Tom Marsico, Coralie Witter and Doug Rao.
*The £34.7m Henderson UK Strategic Capital unit trust will merge into the the £42.8m Henderson Global Strategic Capital unit trust and will be managed by Paul Craig.
*The £191.1m Henderson Extra Monthly Income Bond and £168.3m Henderson High Yield Monthly Income funds will merge into the £445.3m Henderson Fixed Interest Monthly Income fund and remain managed by John Patullo and Jenna Barnard. (article continues below)
If the first tranche of mergers are approved, they are expected to come into being on May 4.
In the second tranche of mergers:
*The £286.5m Henderson Managed Distribution fund will merge into the £813.1m Henderson Cautious Managed fund and be managed by Chris Burvill.
*The £48.4m Henderson International fund will merge with the £215.5m Henderson Global Innovation unit trust, to be managed by Ian Warmerdam and Stuart O’Gorman.
*The £84.4m Henderson Industries of the Future and £79.1m Henderson Global Care UK Income funds will merge into the £190.5m Henderson Global Care Growth fund to be managed by Nick Anderson
*The £19.3m Henderson UK Strategic Income unit trust will merge into the Henderson Multi-Manager Diversified fund (see above).
*The £57.9m Henderson European Smaller Companies fund will merge into the £24.6m Henderson European Focus fund, managed by John Bennett.
*The £24.3m Henderson Global Dividend Income fund will merge into the Henderson Global Equity Income fund (see above).
The second tranche of changes is expected to take effect on July 20, if approved by investors.
Mark Skinner, director of retail global distribution at Henderson, says: “Since the acquisitions of both New Star and Gartmore, we have successfully consolidated over 50 funds across our global distribution channels.
“It has always been our intention to further rationalise the UK retail range for two main reasons. Firstly, to remove complexity and duplication, and secondly, to enable us to focus on a smaller number of key investment strategies that are clearly relevant to our investors.”
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