The board of the £323m Fundsmith Emerging Equities trust has proposed a voluntary liquidation of the company following notification that Fundsmith intends to give notice as investment manager.
A general meeting will be convened, at which the board will recommend shareholders vote in favour of the proposals.
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Both the board and Fundsmith will vote their respective 112,250 (0.43%) and 1,379,227 (5.25%) shares in favour of the resolutions.
FEET is expected to be placed into voluntary liquidation by the end of November, with cash proceeds of the realisation of assets returned to shareholders.
The move comes as Fundsmith CEO and CIO Terry Smith explained that while the trust has made a positive return since launch, it had "fallen below our expectations".
Since inception, the fund has returned 22.3%, much lower than its Global Emerging Markets sector average of 42.6% and MSCI Emerging Markets benchmark performance of 67.6%, according to data from FE fundinfo.
The trust is also down against both sector and benchmark year-to-date, and across one, three and five years.
"Unlike other fund managers who might seek to hold onto the fund for the sake of fee income, we feel it would be in the best interests of shareholders to receive their investment back in cash through a liquidation of the portfolio and wind-up of the company," Smith said.
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Martin Bralsford, chair of the board, added: "We would like to thank Terry and his team for the diligent effort they have made over the last eight years as investment manager.
"We believe it to be in the best interests of shareholders as a whole to liquidate the portfolio and return their cash to them."
