Pie Funds Announces Soft Closure Of Top-Performing Fund

Pie Funds Announces Soft Closure Of Top-Performing
Australasian Growth Fund

Pie Funds, a boutique investment manager and top-performing retail fund in New Zealand, has announced the soft closure of its 5-star-rated Australasian Growth Fund, the best-performing retail fund in 2009 and 2010.

The fund will not be accepting any new money once it reaches its target funds under management of $20 to $25 million.

Pie Funds founder and managing director Mike Taylor said there were several reasons for restricting investment into the fund. “Our investment strategy is focused on a concentrated portfolio of hand-picked smaller companies, and we believe that in order to maintain our out-performance of other funds we need to restrict the size of the fund.

“If you grow too big, the performance suffers and you end up being substantial shareholders in your investments. We want the fund to stay nimble, and the best way to do that is to restrict the amount of money we manage within it.”

The Pie Australasian Growth Fund was launched in late 2007 and has provided investors with a return of over 90% net of fees (but before for tax) since inception.

Announcing what the industry terms as a ‘soft close’ is not unusual, though it is relatively rare and is normally done by funds that are much larger. Mr Taylor said, “The Pie Funds team is focused on achieving the optimal performance for our clients, rather than collecting fees from a large fund, and we believe that restricting investment to between $20 and $25 million is in our clients’ best interests.”

The Pie Australasian Growth Fund started with approximately $3 million, and despite a slow start in 2008 due to the GFC, has grown steadily since through both performance and new investment money. The fund currently sits at just under $17 million, and Mr Taylor said he expected the remaining allocation within the fund to be filled “relatively quickly.”

Pie Funds has no immediate plans to launch a new product and will instead focus on consolidating this fund. Mr Taylor said a new offer may be considered later in 2011, but that will depend on client demand and also where the investment team believes Pie Funds can deliver an advantage.

ENDS

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