Henderson Global Investors to merge funds

Henderson Global Investors has confirmed it plans to merge six of its funds into three in a "tidy-up exercise".

The £972.5 million Henderson European Growth fund, co-managed by Richard Pease and Simon Rowe, will be merged with the £65.4 million Henderson European Smaller Companies fund managed by the Henderson Pan European Equity team.

The £17.2 million Henderson UK Strategic Income fund, managed by Paul Craig, will be combined with the £1.6 million Henderson Core 5 Income fund managed by Bill McQuaker.

The £96.8 million Henderson Global Focus fund will be merged with the £61 million Henderson International fund. Both funds are managed by Matthew Beesley.

The group stresses no fund managers are leaving as a result of the funds being amalgamated.

In a statement the group writes: "This activity is limited in scope compared to previous years and is a tidy-up exercise of a small number of things that did not happen last year."

Henderson Global Investors says it has not yet applied for Financial Conduct Authority approval of the proposals, so the changes are still subject to regulatory and investor approval and may not go ahead. The group is contractually obliged to give most platforms three months' notice of its intended corporate actions.

Performance

• Over one year the Henderson European Growth fund returned 33.1% compared with 34.1% in the UT Europe Excluding the UK sector as at 14 August.
• Henderson European Smaller Companies fund returned 34.4% compared with 38.5% in the UT Smaller Companies sector as at the same date.
• Henderson UK Strategic Income fund returned 18.6% compared with 22.4% in the UT UK Equity Income sector.
• Henderson Global Focus fund returned 26% compared with 20.3% in the UT Global sector.
• Henderson International fund returned 25.3% compared with 20.3% in the UT Global sector.