Swip to shut Japan, European Income and UK property funds

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) is to close three of its funds after continuing redemptions have limited the funds’ net asset value.

The Japanese, European Income and UK Real Estate fund have now reached a size where they are ‘no longer economically viable’ to manage, the company said, and investors will be given the option to switch into another fund with no additional charge.

Meanwhile, Swip is offering investors in its Pan-European Smaller Companies fund the opportunity to transfer assets in to the European fund without incurring a charge.

The news follows a review of the business which Swip began in April, with the aim of repositioning its equity strategy to focus on the global and specialist active equities range, alongside more quantitative strategies.

Mike McNaught-Davies' Swip European Income fund has outperformed the benchmark this year, returning 3.3% over 12 months compared to 1.82% in the MSCI Europe ex-UK TR benchmark but performance has been less strong over three years.

Meanwhile, the Swip Japanese fund is run by Stephen Hall and Nick Duncan and has only just outperformed the benchmark over three years, making a loss of 1.83% compared to -1.94 in the Topix TR benchmark.

The Swip UK Real Estate fund, run by Vicky Watson, has struggled to outperform the benchmark over one and three years, posting a loss of -12.51% compared to -6.09% in the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT United Kingdom TR benchmark.