Barings to soft close £1.5bn Europe Select fund

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Barings to soft close £1.5bn Europe Select fund

Baring Asset Management is to soft close its £1.5bn Europe Select fund, which has “tripled in size” over the past five years.

Barings is to add limited issue powers to the European equity fund, run by Nicholas Williams, from May 23, which will prevent new investors from entering.

Rod Aldridge, the firm’s head of Emea wholesale distribution, said: “It’s a key product for us and one where we have had some significant success in terms of growing the assets, which have tripled in the last five years.

“We regularly review capacity across our whole product range, and we thought it was prudent to manage the inflows as assets rise.”

He noted that the size of the fund would continue to be monitored, with the possibility of it reopening under certain circumstances.

“The changes give us ample ability to grow the fund with existing investors,” he said. “We will continue to review capacity going forward. If markets become more liquid, there’s the chance that we could open up the fund.

“That decision [whether to reopen the fund] could be driven by a number of different factors. The fund could reduce in assets, markets could change or clients’ appetite for European equities could change. Liquidity could play a big role.”

However, he noted there was no “fixed” metric that could prompt a reopening.

According to FE Analytics the fund has returned 39.8 per cent over three years, compared with 35.1 per cent from its peer group, the Investment Association European Smaller Companies sector.