Betashares closes swathe of funds due to insufficient size
Betashares is to close three managed funds and two ETFs after they failed to secure sufficient assets.
On 12 December, the firm announced to the ASX that its Future of Payments ETF, Future of Food ETF and Solar ETF will all close on 17 January. The Payments ETF was founded in December 2021, while the Food one was founded in May 2022, and the Solar one in June 2022.
The first sought to invest in leading companies with exposure to the global payment sector, such as PayPal and American Express, while the Future of Food ETF invested in companies with exposure to global food production and supply. Meanwhile, the Solar ETF provided exposure to companies in the solar energy industry.
Separately, it announced it will close three managed funds run with Martin Currie. These are the Betashares Martin Currie Emerging Markets Fund, Betashares Martin Currie Equity Income Fund, and Betashares Martin Currie Real Income Fund.
The first two of these will close on 22 January, while the latter will close on 4 February.
Betashares said the decision to close all of these funds was based on the fact they had failed to achieve sufficient scale to be sustainable since their inception.
It flagged investors could access similar exposure via funds run by Franklin Templeton, of which Martin Currie is a specialist investment manager.
In all cases, investors have the option to sell their units on the ASX before the final trading day or continue to hold their units, participate in the wind up and receive a final distribution payment of any income as well as their proportionate share of the net proceeds from the sale of the fund’s assets.
On the Betashares Martin Currie funds, the closures mean investors will not receive a distribution for the distribution period ending in December 2024.
This is the latest in several fund closures which have happened this year, including two sustainable funds closed by JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) and the Enhanced Credit Fund run by Pendal.
At JPMAM, it said it would terminate its JPMorgan Sustainable Infrastructure Fund and JPMorgan Sustainable Infrastructure Active ETF (Managed Fund) on 29 August. JPMAM said the product had “failed to gain traction” with the Australian market.
Meanwhile, Pendal closed its Enhanced Credit Fund on 2 December as its small size meant it could not be managed in a cost-effective way, it said.
Finally, First Sentier closed multiple investment teams across Australian fixed income, global credit, equity income and emerging companies in April 2024.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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