F&C announces that following significant inflows into its global convertible bond products, which include the award winning F&C Global Convertible Bond Fund, it is to restrict new business in the asset class for the foreseeable future.
The decision to ‘soft close' the F&C Global Convertibles Fund reflects the investment manager's belief that the assets managed by the business have reached an optimum level given the current universe of investible securities. F&C has attracted new inflows from across the globe into global convertibles over the last 12 months.
F&C currently manages global convertible bonds in excess of €2 billion*. These assets are managed in Amsterdam by F&C's Global Convertible Bond team which has developed a strong track-record based on an investment philosophy that has been consistently applied since 1998. In recent years the F&C Global Convertible Bond Fund has notched up an impressive tally of awards including five Lipper awards during 2010 and twelve in 2011.
Anja Eiking, Head of Global Convertibles at F&C, commented: "Over the last year we have seen tremendous support for our products as investors have identified convertible bonds as an attractive way of achieving equity market upside with bond-like resilience. We remain positive about the outlook for convertibles however the market has recently seen lower overall volumes, new issues have been smaller in scale and generally at the lower quality end. In addition, several outstanding convertibles have been ‘called' by issuers, which has an impact on the opportunities available in this specialist asset class. Against this backdrop we therefore believe the size of assets we are managing is about right to enable us to continue to deliver strong performance for our clients without compromising our investment philosophy."
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