St. James's Place is planning to merge four of its UK equity income funds to create one portfolio.
The Allshare Income, Equity Income, UK Income, and UK and International Income funds will all be combined into a new UK Equity Income fund, with an AUM of £4.3bn.
This new portfolio will hold a minimum of 80% UK equities, but it will also invest across a mix of asset classes, such as global equities, global fixed interest and index-linked securities.
The fund group said the investment objective, policy, benchmark, and manager line-up will all change.
On the latter, the new portfolio will retain managers from Artemis and Redwheel (formerly RWC) and will add JP Morgan Asset Management to the mix.
Joe Wiggins departs St James's Place
St James's Place has had a mixed year so far, with several high-level departures and the announcement of its new mobile app after months of trials with clients.
Commenting on this consolidation, the firm's director of investments Tom Beal said this was part of its 2025 strategy: "We are building a fund range that is underpinned by multi-manager funds, rather than single-manager strategies. This is because we believe that by blending complementary managers together we can generate more consistent returns for our clients.
"The proposed changes will streamline and simplify our offering, merging four similar funds into one multi-manager building block. The solution will be diversified across managers with a blend of complementary styles, offering greater potential for more consistent, long-term performance. Multi-manager funds also give us increased flexibility and agility if we need to change managers."
