BlackRock has opted to liquidate a multi-strategy fund overseen by two veteran investors after struggling to amass sufficient assets since its launch three-and-a-half-years ago.
According to a shareholder note seen by Citywire Selector, BlackRock intends to close the BSF Style Advantage Screened fund on 10 May. The fund manager launched the Luxembourg-domiciled fund in 2018. Philip Hodges and Kevin Franklin run it.
Hodges has been with BlackRock since 2007 and sits within the wider global market strategies group. Franklin joined the company in 2010, and he is a fund manager for a host of liquid alternative funds.
In the note, BlackRock said the fund had reached $23.4m (R350m) as of March 2022, but there was a lack of new investor interest. Therefore, it decided to close the fund as it would be costly to run at its current level.
This strategy operates similarly to the BSF Style Advantage fund, also run by Hodges and Franklin and launched in 2016.
However, the fund doesn’t operate with the same strict exclusionary methods as the screened version, which removes controversial weapons, thermal coal extraction and tobacco, as well as any stocks deemed to be in breach of the UN’s Global Compact Principles.
Citywire understands that the closure of the BSF Style Advantage Screened fund has no bearing on Hodges and Franklin’s wider portfolio manager responsibilities.
The BSF Style Advantage fund sits within the Absolute Return – Other sector. It lost an annualised -17.5% in US dollars over the three years ended February, versus a sector average of an annualised gain of 7.5%, ranking it 17th out of 17 funds.
