First State Investments has formally announced the soft-closure of Jonathan Asante's £4bn GEM Leaders fund.
In a letter to investors, seen by Investment Week, First State said from September a 4% initial charge will be applied in order to dissuade new investors from buying the fund.
"First State Investments has announced that, following significant fund inflows, it has decided to soft-close the First State Global Emerging Markets Leaders fund in order to protect the interests of existing investors.
"From 7 September 2013 the full initial charge of 4% of the value of your purchase will be charged on all purchases in the fund."
Earlier this year, First State Stewart warned clients it may be forced to soft-close its Dublin-domiciled range, including offerings from star managers Jonathan Asante and Angus Tulloch, if inflows continued apace.
In a letter to shareholders, First State Stewart said it may be obliged to soft-close 11 of the 13 funds in the range which remain open, following strong demand from investors.
Last year First State also soft-closed its Hong Kong Growth and Indian Subcontinent funds.
First State's 4% charge is significantly higher than the 2% charge introduced by Aberdeen to stem flows into its own global emerging markets range, announced recently.
Earlier this year Investment Week reported First State is also considering moving Asante's GEM Leaders fund out of the IMA Global Emerging Market sector to combat liquidity problems.
The fund is one of the star performers in the IMA Global Emerging Markets sector, returning 84.9% over five years to May 3, ahead of the sector average fund return of 28.8%, according to Morningstar.
