Small caps fund re-opens after four years
By Liam Egan
Fund managers are continuing to feed investor demand for small company funds, with Goldman Sachs JBWere reopening its emerging leaders vehicles to new investments after having closed the funds off in 2001 when assets under management topped $900 million.
Chief investment officer Andrew Cooke attributed the funds’ reopening to a 40 per cent increase in sector capacity since the retail and wholesale versions of the fund were closed.
Reopening the funds, which have assets under management of $670 million, was a “capacity call rather than an asset allocation call”, Cooke said, prompted by clients “asking us for capacity” in the funds.
Cooke said increased sector capacity would give the funds the “potential to grow in a measured way without adversely affecting our existing unit holders”.
The reopening of the funds is designed to target new investors who “want an allocation to small and mid-caps over a medium-term investment”, according to Cooke.
“People should bear in mind that the small to mid-cap sector has had very strong performance over the past 12 months, and valuations, while not at alarming levels, are not at attractive levels,” he said.
The reopening of the funds follows similar moves by INGand Equity Trustees with their small cap funds late last year.
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