UK fund manager Abrdn is set to fold its New Dawn investment trust into its Asia Dragon fund.
The New Dawn fund will be liquidated and its assets transferred to Asia Dragon.
Should the move be approved by shareholders, it would effectively create the second-largest listed Asia Pacific fund with assets in excess of £700 million.
Abdrn has also proposed reducing the annual management fee for Asia Dragon from 0.85% to 0.75% on net assets up to £350 million.
The same benchmark, MSCI AC Asia (ex-Japan), will continue to be used by the combined fund. However, analysts have also noted the relative underperformance of both funds over the last ten years.
The proposal has been backed by the respective boards of the two funds.
According to New Dawn chairman Donald Workman, the combination will provide “additional scale and liquidity” while “broadly retaining Abrdn New Dawn’s existing investment policy”.
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