Macquarie shuts down suspended van Eyk funds



Macquarie Investment Management has moved to terminate four van Eyk blueprint funds that were suspended last month following an illiquid investment.
As the responsible entity for the four funds, Macquarie said it was in the best interests of investors that the van Eyk Blueprint International Share Fund, van Eyk Blueprint Capital Stable Fund, van Eyk Blueprint Balanced Fund and the van Eyk Blueprint High Growth Fund were closed, effective August 15, with liquid investments to be distributed between investors in the coming weeks.
It comes as van Eyk's confirmed the departure of the group's three man asset consultancy team, comprising head of asset consulting, Jonathan Ramsay, and asset consultants, Fil Andronaco and Jonathan Tolub, earlier this week.
The funds were suspended in late July after one of the underlying managers of the van Eyk Blueprint International Share Fund, Artefact Partners, made an illiquid investment that was out of line with VBI's strategy.
After evaluating the remediation pathways, Macquarie said termination was the best avenue given "a substantial portion of the funds" could be returned to investors.
It said termination would promote a more prompt resolution and stressed the funds could not be handled in line with their original investment mandates due to the illiquid investment.
The first investment return is expected in two to three weeks.
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