OMAM prepares to hard-close Kerr’s UK Dynamic Equity fund

Old Mutual Asset Managers is preparing to hard-close its two-year-old UK Dynamic Equity fund to protect performance.

The £186m Dublin-domiciled fund, headed by Luke Kerr and Ashton Bradbury, had around £7m of outstanding capacity at the end of last month after seeing strong inflows since launch.

It is one of a number of portfolios on which the group has imposed a cap by restricting the number of units in issue.

OMAM’s top performing UK Select Smaller Companies fund, headed by Dan Nickols, and the offshore version, also have hard caps in place, although capacity in them is much higher than Dynamic Equity.

The £580m UK Select Smaller Companies fund has outperformed its peer group, returning 36% over the three years to 10 June versus the IMA UK Smaller Companies sector average of 30%, according to Morningstar. The fund has around £120m worth of units remaining, while the £59m offshore version can take further inflows of £65m.

Simon Wilson, sales and marketing director, said the number of units in issue is limited on the three funds in order to protect returns.

“The number of units in issue is restricted for three funds the team runs as we see this as the best way of ensuring we continue to focus on delivering returns investors expect,” he said.

“Achieving strong returns has always been the key priority for us – even if that means capping some funds and limiting further asset growth.”

The team also runs the £940m UK Select Mid Cap fund, headed by Richard Watts. However the fund, which has returned 30.9% in the last year, ahead of the IMA UK All Companies average of 20.8%, does not yet have a hard cap in place.