Abrdn has announced it intends to liquidate its UK Equity Index Managed, World Income Equity, and Sterling Long-Dated Government Bond funds, continuing its plan to either merge or close over 100 strategies.
The asset manager said the funds in question were either subscale or not aligned with its core capabilities.
The UK Equity Index Managed strategy had assets of £54m ($64.4m) as of 31 January and has consistently tracked just below its performance target, the FTSE 100 Index +1%, over the last four years.
The World Equity Income fund is smaller, with data from the FT sizing it at £31m as of the same date. It is up 3.7% over the last three years, but its benchmark, the MSCI AC World High Dividend Yield Index +3%, has returned 9.7% in the same period. Over five years the discrepancy is larger, with the fund returning 3% to the benchmark’s 11.3%.
The Sterling Long-Dated Government Bond fund is the smallest of the three, at £8m, and unsurprisingly it endured a torrid 2022 in which it was down over 40%. Once again, it has underperformed its benchmark over the last one, three, and five years to 31 December 2022.
When approached for comment on the closures, Abrdn reiterated that the consolidation programme is also being rolled out to reduce duplication, simplify the firm’s offering, and to free up resources.
The spokesperson added: “We have already made good progress and expect the work to complete over the coming months.”
Abrdn merged four funds in early January as part of the same process.
This story first appeared on our sister publication, Portfolio Adviser.
