Manulife Investments, a division of Toronto-based Manulife Asset Management Ltd., plans to cap the Manulife Monthly High Income Fund (MOHI) due to capacity concerns, the company announced on Monday.
The fund, along with the related Manulife Monthly High Income Class and Manulife Canadian Balanced Private Pool, will be capped on Aug. 28 at 4:00 pm (ET).
The three funds will be capped to all new and ongoing purchases, supplementary deposits and new pre-authorized chequing (PAC) plans. Switches into these funds will not be accepted. The capping also applies to segregated fund contracts for which these were underlying funds.
“Manulife Investments takes its responsibility to manage its funds with the highest degree of stewardship very seriously,” says Derek Saliba, assistant vice president, mutual fund products, in a statement. “Slowing the growth of assets in the funds will maintain the flexibility to continue to invest assets in line with the management team’s disciplined approach.”
“Capping the funds allows us to continue investing in the same manner that we have done for the past 17 years for our clients and partners,” adds Alan Wicks, senior managing director and senior portfolio manager, Manulife Asset Management Ltd.
“Given our unique scalable and repeatable process, the success of the funds, in terms of both performance and asset accumulation, and the concentration of the Canadian market, capping will allow us to continue investing in this manner without having to alter our process. This same process will continue to be available to investors through other mandates managed by the Value Equity team, such as Manulife U.S. Monthly High Income Fund and Manulife Dividend Income Fund,” Wicks explains.
Established in 1996 by Wicks, the Value Equity Team manages over $15 billion in assets under management (AUM) across multiple mandates that span the entire globe, and consists of 10 members including Duncan Anderson, Jonathan Popper and Conrad Dabiet.