Foord Global Equity Fund: same strategy, new home

Foord plans to bring its Singapore-domiciled Foord Global Equity Fund together with its Luxembourg counterpart in the second quarter. Foord Singapore CEO WEI LU TAN writes that the change is not about the investment strategy, but about where it resides.

Foord’s global equity strategy may soon have a single home. We plan to combine the Singapore-domiciled Foord Global Equity Fund with Foord Global Equity Fund (Luxembourg), the UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities in the European Union) version of the same strategy. The two funds already share the same investment objective and are run using the same approach. In practice, they operate as mirror portfolios.

The story goes back more than a decade. The Singapore fund was launched in 2012. A year later, Foord established the Luxembourg fund as a mirror portfolio to support distribution of the strategy in Europe and other markets. Over time, Luxembourg became the home of Foord’s wider offshore fund range. Rather than continue to maintain two parallel versions of the same global equity portfolio, we would rather house the strategy in one place.

There is no change to the investment objective, strategy or team. This is merely an administrative and legal consolidation of a strategy that exists in two jurisdictions. If approved, investors in the Singapore fund will receive shares in the corresponding Luxembourg share classes, and the Singapore unit trust will then be closed. Foord Asset Management Singapore will continue as a licensed investment manager in Singapore and continue to sub-manage Foord’s Luxembourg products.

The benefits are practical rather than dramatic. The amalgamation should improve overall tax and cost outcomes and help to streamline operations. Running one vehicle rather than two mirror portfolios reduces duplication for us and confusion for investors. It also places the strategy within the class-leading Luxembourg UCITS structure already used for Foord’s other global funds.

The proposal is subject to investor approval in Singapore and, if passed, would be implemented in the second quarter. Foord will bear all costs associated with the fund merger. For investors in the Singapore Foord Global Equity Fund, the change will be more visible on paper than in substance. It is a tidying-up exercise, but a sensible one. The same global equity strategy would continue, just from one address rather than two. In fund management, as elsewhere, simpler is usually better.