Toronto-based Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Ltd., has announced multiple changes to its mutual fund lineup and merging its Canadian small cap equity team with its Canadian large cap team.
In an attempt to eliminate overlap, Manulife will be merging seven funds at the close of business April 20. Thirteen more funds will be merged on May 25.
Manulife will also be re-opening Manulife U.S. Dividend Income Fund to investors on Jan 31. The fund, managed by Manulife’s value equity team, was proactively capped to new investors on Jan. 25, 2016, as part of a business decision related to the integration with Standard Life.
Other planned changes include name changes to 13 funds, investment objective changes to eight funds, and management fee reductions to nine funds. The firm expects these changes will take effect April 6.
“We are focused on delivering value for our clients,” says Bernard Letendre, president and CEO of Manulife Investments, in a statement. “These changes simplify our product offering to provide both our clients and advisors with a more streamlined platform of high quality funds.”
Manulife is also streamlining its portfolio management team. The firm will be merging its Canadian small cap equity team with its Canadian large cap growth team to form a single Canadian growth team. Shauna Sexsmith, senior managing director and senior portfolio manager, will assume leadership responsibilities for the combined Canadian growth team.
Luciano Orengo, co-portfolio manager on Manulife Asset Management’s Canadian small cap strategies, will now become lead manager and will replace Ted Whitehead as head of the Canadian small cap strategies. Whitehead will be leaving the company as of Feb. 28.
Orengo will also be named managing director and senior portfolio manager of Manulife Growth Opportunities Fund and Manulife Growth Opportunities Class.
An entire list of affected funds is available on the firm’s news release.
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