Rathbone Unit Trust Management is preparing for a post-Brexit scenario and the inevitable changes in regulations.
Rathbones has a Luxembourg-based Sicav with feeder sub-funds which invest into its UK-based Rathbone Ethical Bond, Rathbone Multi-Asset Total Return, Multi-Asset Strategic Growth, and Multi-Asset Enhanced Growth Portfolio funds.
But after 29 March 2019, the company expects the current Ucits status of the feeder funds will most likely end, leaving Rathbones unable to market the funds in the European Union.
As a result, Rathbones said it will create directly-invested funds in Luxembourg following the same investment strategy to the UK-based ones.
Investors who are currently active in those funds can continue to do so, said the firm in a statement, as the transition from feeder into directly-invested funds “will allow investors to benefit from the same investment strategies and process, and with the same fund managers as before, within a Ucits framework”.
Mike Webb, chief executive at Rathbone Unit Trust Management, said: “With continued uncertainty surrounding the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU, Rathbones has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that its Luxembourg-domiciled fund range remains distributable in the EU.”
