Report: Credit Suisse to liquidate ‘limited’ Russian equity fund

MOSCOW, Oct 26 (PRIME) -- Credit Suisse Asset Management is to restructure and effectively close its dedicated Russian equity fund owing to the perceived limitations of its investable universe, the Swiss group has announced, newswire Citywire Selector reported late on Tuesday

In a shareholder letter seen by Citywire Selector, the firm said it intends to liquidate the Credit Suisse (Lux) Russian Equity fund on November 14. It currently has 59 million euros in assets under management.

This will result in the fund, which was launched in 1994 as a Luxembourg-domiciled approach, ceasing to exist with shareholders having their allocations rolled into the Credit Suisse (Lux) Global Emerging Market Brands Equity fund.

Both funds are overseen by Anna Vaananen and Michael Lee Zemp, which Credit Suisse said would aid a smooth transition in management. This is while the receiving fund also focuses primarily on consumption growth but with a much broader remit.

The Global Emerging Market Brands fund holds a higher number of stocks, currently housing 50 positions, as opposed to 29 in the Russian Equity fund. According to latest available data, Russia currently accounts for 6% of the receiving fund’s total allocation.

As part of the change, Credit Suisse said it would rebrand the fund as the Credit Suisse (Lux) Global Emerging Market Consumer Equity fund, which will most likely come into effect over the course of Q1 2017.

Explaining the change, Credit Suisse AM said: “The Credit Suisse (Lux) Russian Equity Fund invests mainly in growth-oriented Russian consumer stocks that benefit from the structural rise in end-demand in Russia. In view of the limited investment universe, a decision has been taken to restructure the fund.”

The change comes hot-on-the-heels of an announcement Credit Suisse intends to roll its Asian Consumer Equity fund into the broader Global Prestige Equity fund, as revealed by Citywire Asia earlier this week.

The CS (Lux) Russian Equity fund returned 53.1% in Russian ruble terms over the three years to the end of September 2016. This compares to a 60% rise by its Citywire-assigned benchmark, the MSCI Russia 10-40 total return in U.S. dollars, over the same period.

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