New Star has this week suspended dealing in its Heart of Africa fund. The fund has shed 20% of its value this year alone, trailing the average emerging-markets equity category by 12 percentage points. The firm attributed this to an increasing illiquidity in the sub-Saharan region. A rise in redemptions worsened the situation as the portfolio became more concentrated in illiquid securities. New Star is now inviting bids for the entire portfolio to realise the fund’s assets in one go rather than slowly unwinding individual positions. The fund will be liquidated on 31 March.
We ha
ve stated in a previous Fund Times article that this was a high-risk vehicle which we believed most investors didn’t need. The fund's charges were also very high. The TER was 3.23% including a performance fee that was levied on up to 20% of any outperformance over its LIBOR + 3% benchmark (a benchmark that is unrelated to African equities).
HSBC launches three global funds of funds
HSBC has launched three funds of funds within its new World Selection Portfolios lineup. The globally diversified funds will invest in a mix of assets including equities, bonds and other non-traditional asset classes such as commodities and private equity. The funds may also hold ETFs when the managers believe they can achieve a better risk/return profile than that of open-ended funds. Asset allocation will vary between funds depending on risk appetite, hence investors can choose between cautious, balanced and dynamic mandates. The funds will be managed by HSBC’s multimanager team and follow the same principles as the newly launched OpenFunds range, which include HSBC Open Global Distribution and HSBC Open Global Return. Both funds have thus far delivered competitive showings in their Morningstar Sterling Aggressive Balanced category. We believe, however, that investors should carefully consider the negative impact of the layering of fees at funds of funds before deciding on investing.
AllianceBernstein’s Masters reassumes CIO role
Seth Masters will replace Marc Mayer as Chief Investment Officer of AllianceBernstein’s blend mandates. These portfolios invest in funds managed by different investment teams at the firm, namely the growth, value and fixed-income teams. Mayer will be leaving the firm to become CEO of GMO LLC, but Masters is no stranger to the division as he was previously CIO when it was founded in 2002 and worked there through June 2008. Seth will lead a team of 16 portfolio managers and is expected to maintain his current responsibilities to defined contribution clients. The shifts come just after CEO Lew Sanders stepped down. Sanders was replaced by Peter Kraus, who was previously at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.
HEXAM Capital mirror offshore Emerging Markets fund in the UK
HEXAM capital has this week launched for UK investors a mirror version of its Dublin-domiciled Ignis HEXAM Global Emerging Markets fund. The fund is managed by Bryan Collings who runs a benchmark-agnostic best-ideas portfolio of 30-50 stocks. The fund’s performance since launch has been mixed: it landed in its Morningstar category’s top-decile in 2007, returning 49% and dipped down to 65th percentile in 2008 as it lost 41% of its value. Investors should expect a bumpy ride here given the portfolio’s compact nature and the manager’s willingness to take significant sector and country bets.
Standard Life compensates shareholders of Pension Sterling fund
Standard Life will be compensating some 97,000 investors in its Pension Sterling fund, which registered a loss of 4.8% on 14 January 2009. The firm will be restoring the value of the fund to the level preceding this fall, costing it a pre-tax amount of about £100 million. The fund invests in bank and building society deposits and floating-rate notes, most of which are asset-backed securities. The mix strikes us as clearly too risky for something that was represented as investing in cash-like securities. Anything with credit risk is not cash. We believe Standard Life should fully compensate investors for the shortfall.
Insight appoints new head for Europe
Insight Investments has appointed Olaf John as head of Europe to further the firm’s reach in the continent. John previously worked at Lehman Brothers as head of distribution for Germany and Austria and boasts twenty years’ experience in the industry, specifically within distribution at renowned firms such as Barclays Global Investors and Fidelity International. He will assume his responsibilities next month.