The Old Mutual Healthcare Fund and the Old Mutual Technology Fund are among those being considered for closure. Both funds were launched in April 2006 and have external managers.
The performance of the former over the past year is shown in the graph below.
It has been in the fourth quartile over one and five years, climbing to third over three years. It has around €60m under management, the largest proportion of which, 34%, is invested in the biotech sector.
The closure of the fund comes at a time when other groups are looking to make further inroads into the healthcare sector. Last week Polar Capital announced two new hires ahead of a push into the market.
A further three Swedish funds and one Swiss fund are being considered for closure.
Investors will be able to redeem their investments, or switch out of the funds.
The move comes as Old Mutual undertakes a rebranding and restructuring programme following its take-over of Skandia, the latest round of which was completed at the end of April.
There has been a raft of fund closures elsewhere recently, and a couple of weeks ago both Barclays and Bedlam Asset Management announced they were closing funds due to poor performance.
