Equity Trustees, the responsible entity for Milford’s investment funds, confirmed the closure of the Milford Diversified Income Fund in an ASX announcement.
The firm anticipates finalising the termination by the end of March 2025, it stated, with no further applications or redemptions to be accepted during the wind-up period.
“By way of background, the decision to close is driven by the current small investment scale of the fund. We therefore consider the best course of action is to bring about the timely termination of the fund,” the ASX announcement wrote.
Equity Trustees has commenced realisation of the fund’s assets, and payment of proceeds is expected to be made to unit holds in February 2025.
Led by portfolio managers Paul Morris and Anthony Ip, the multi-asset fund aims to provide investors with a regular monthly income and moderate levels of capital growth by investing in a range of income-generating assets. This includes Australian and global shares, fixed interest, property and infrastructure.
The fund opened on 3 August 2020, requiring a minimum investment of $1,000 and management fees of 0.76 per cent.
Betashares made a similar announcement last month, confirming the closure of several managed funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) after they failed to achieve sufficient scale to be sustainable since their inception.
Its Future of Payments ETF, Future of Food ETF and Solar ETF were all terminated on 17 January. Meanwhile, it announced the closure of three managed funds run with Martin Currie.
The Betashares Martin Currie Emerging Markets Fund and the Betashares Martin Currie Equity Income Fund both closed on 22 January, while the Betashares Martin Currie Real Income Fund will close on 4 February.
Similarly, Magellan Asset Management announced the termination of three funds in its Core Series in November last year: the Magellan Core Global Fund, the Magellan Core ESG Fund, and the Magellan Sustainable Fund.
Pendal also wound up its Enhanced Credit Fund on 2 December as its small size meant it could not be managed in a cost-effective way, it said.
