E Fund had two vehciles − the E Fund Dynamic China Bond Fund and the E Fund-Wingpeng Global Prestige Consumer Equity Fund − receive full redemption from investors in December last year, resulting in the closures.
A third product, the E Fund Wealth China Bond Fund, will also be terminated after receiving significant redemption in September last year, according to the fund’s annual report.
The E Fund Dynamic China Bond Fund, which mainly invests in onshore RMB fixed income, in December “had received full redemption requests from the investors and all units were redeemed. As of 31 December 2016, the sub-fund held no investments”, the firm’s annual report noted. It had about RMB 85.3m ($12.6m) of assets under management before the full redemptions, and had returned 22% in RMB terms since the launch in late-2014.
Similarly, all units of the E Fund-Wingpeng Global Prestige Consumer Equity Fund were redeemed in early December. Launched in December 2014, the fund invested primarily in consumer discretionary and staple sectors, in particular, high-end service companies. It returned -27.5% in US dollar terms as of 2016-end, with about $17m of assets under management, the document showed.
E Fund Wealth China Bond Fund, another fixed income fund, “had received a significant redemption from the sole investor on 20 September 2016 of RMB 1,082 million” ($159m), the firm said in the annual report. AUM hence dropped to less than RMB 432,000, “which is below the level which the manager considers as sufficient to manage the sub-fund in a cost-efficient manner under current market conditions”. The firm has filed application to close the fund.
The Chinese fund house has announced in Janurary to close the E Fund RMB Mainland China Bond Fund.
The Blackrock Asian Local Bond Fund and JP Morgan China Bond fund have also ceased retail sales in the SAR, but they are still registered to sell in Singapore, according to FE. They have AUM of $17.6m and $12.1m, respectively, as of April 30.
Legg Mason deauthorised the Western Asset Euro Absolute Return Bond Fund last month, and the Legg Mason Opportunity Fund in March.
The euro absolute return product had no trading activity since August 2016, according to the firm’s semi-annual report. The opportunity fund the firm anticipates “a prospective restructuring or merger of the sub-fund with another sub-fund to be established under a different umbrella, which will not be seeking authorisation by the SFC in Hong Kong,” the firm said.
The Haitong China Fund, also removed from the authorised fund list, had decided to terminate the product in March 2015 due to the small AUM size, according to its statement.
