Miton is to change the names of the CF Miton Special Situations and CF Miton Strategic Portfolios later this month.
Subject to shareholder approval, the CF Miton Strategic Portfolio will become the CF Miton Defensive Multi Asset fund, while the CF Miton Special Situations Portfolio will become the CF Miton Cautious Multi Asset fund.
In addition the firm said the investment objective and policy for the £119,6m CF Miton Strategic Portfolio will be changed to “allow a more flexible approach to multi-asset investing”.
It explained the change would allow manager David Jane and his team to invest directly in securities rather than “substantially” in other funds, which it claimed should reduce execution costs.
Currently the CF Miton Strategic Portfolio and £420.9m CF Miton Special Situations funds both sit in the Investment Association Flexible Investment sector, but Miton said it is reviewing the sector these funds sit in.
The multi-asset fund range has struggled recently, with the firm’s trading statement for 2014 acknowledging in January that “the adverse performance in our multi-asset funds led to a sharp increase in redemptions towards the end of H1”.
The firm, however, pointed out that since Mr Jane and his team took over the funds in June 2014 they have made some “key changes” to the funds which has helped improve performance. This included having “repositioned and diversified the funds for a broader range of probable outcomes” and reducing the absolute level of risk within the funds.
