SWIP liquidates Sicav range as investors opt for OEIC

Lack of investor interest in Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's (SWIP) Sicav funds has forced the firm to liquidate its whole range of Luxembourg-domiciled funds.

Shareholders voted to close the Sicav at an extra general meeting on July 14, following a proposal by the board of directors.

The closure includes the firm's two main Sicavs, its Emerging Market Smaller Companies and Emerging Market Infrastructure funds,

'We have decided to close our Luxembourg Sicav because as it was not serving our existing clients well,' said Christian Elsmark, SWIP Europe's managing director. 'Many of our large institutional investors invested in our OEICs, saying they better met their interests. We are seeing that there is more and more demand from clients for bigger and larger pools of vehicles with a wide diversity of investment bases.'

The recent loss of the firm's global emerging market team to rival Martin Currie in April this year had a significant impact on the Sicav funds and was one of the driving forces behind its decision to close them.

Another four sub-funds in the Sicav, the Emerging Markets, Latin America, European and European Absolute Return funds, were also included in the closure list.

'Having made the decision not to continue our emerging market strategy as part of the Sicav, we decided subsequently to close the rest too,' said Elsmark.