Births

Pimco [profile] launched the Pimco Emerging Markets Full Spectrum Bond Fund, PMed by managing director and global emerging markets PM team co-head Michael Gomez. The new mutual fund features A shares, C shares, D shares, institutional shares and P shares.

ProShares [profile] has launched the ProShares Global Listed Private Equity ETF.

First Trust [profile] has launched the First Trust High Yield Long/Short ETF.

Vanguard [profile] has plans to launch the Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond Index Fund and its ETF Shares by the end of the second quarter of 2013.

ALPS [profile] has launched the U.S. Equity High Volatility Put Write Index Fund.

Marriages

Touchstone [profile] announced two pending mutual fund mergers slated for May 17. Pending shareholder approval, the one-star, $142.7-million Touchstone Focused Equity Fund will merge into the five-star, $569.9-million Touchstone Focused Fund, and the three-star, $99.4-million Touchstone Short Duration Fixed Income Fund will merge into the four-star, $604.0-million Touchstone Ultra Short Duration Fixed Income Fund.

Adoptions

Stadion is acquiring the ETF Market Opportunity Fund, formerly managed by Aviemore Asset Management, and reorganizing it within the Stadion Trust.

Party At Capacity

Vanguard [profile] has curtailed access to the Vanguard Wellington Fund and the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund.

Brain Surgery

James Barrow has added two associate PMs to his funds, as reported this week on MFWire. Jeff Fahrenbruch and David Ganucheau have both been added to the Vanguard [profile] Windsor II fund, which Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss subadvises.

Blackrock [profile] is replacing several equities funds managers, according to a Bloomberg report.

The $773 million BlackRock Energy and Resources Portfolio and the $384 million BlackRock All-Cap Energy and Resources will now be managed by Robin Batchelor and Poppy Allonby. Both were previously managed by Denis Walsh and Daniel Neumann. This team had only managed the funds since June, when Daniel Rice stepped down.

The BlackRock Small Cap Growth Equity Portfolio, worth $1.4 billion, will see Andrew Thut and Andrew Leger replaced.

The $286 million BlackRock Mid-Cap Growth Equity Portfolio will no longer be managed by Eileen Leary. All of the replaced managers will be leaving BlackRock, according to reporter Alexis Leondis. Check out the full story here. Touchstone [profile] revealed plans to tweak the four-star, $35.1-million Touchstone Micro Cap Value Fund, currently sub-advised by Russell Implementation Services. Touchstone will add Apex Capital Management as a sub-advisor, change the mutual fund's style to small-cap growth equities, and rebrand the fund as the Touchstone Small Cap Growth Fund. The changes are slated for April 26.

Meanwhile, Touchstone [profile] switched sub-advisors for the three-star, $22.4-million Touchstone Global Real Estate Fund. Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers had sub-advised the mutual fund since inception in 2009. On Friday Touchstone swapped in Russell Implementation Services as interim sub-advisor.

American Century [profile] has added three portfolio managers: Chad Baumler, who will PM the U.S. Value strategy, which includes management of the American Century Value and VP Value funds; Steven Rodriquez, who will co-manage the U.S. Real Estate Securities and Global Real Estate Securities strategies, which includes management of the American Century Real Estate and Global Real Estate funds, and Le Tran who, as part of the Money Market team, will co-manage the American Century Tax-Free Money Market and California Tax-Free Money Market funds.

Oppenheimer [profile] has hired Laton Spahr and three other PMs to manage both the Oppenheimer Value Fund and Oppenheimer Small & Mid Cap Value Fund.

Gene Therapy

On February 25 Invesco [profile] added a third underlying component, the Invesco Balanced-Risk Aggressive Allocation Fund, to its target date Invesco Balanced-Risk Retirement funds. The five target date funds hold about $434 million.

Deaths

Touchstone [profile] plans to liquidate six mutual funds: the two-star, $14.9-million Touchstone Emerging Growth Fund; the two-star, $24.2-million Touchstone Global Equity Fund; the two-star, $19.5-million Touchstone International Equity Fund; the one-star, $31.4-million Touchstone Large Cap Relative Value Fund; the one-star, $36.4-million Touchstone Market Neutral Equity Fund; and the three-star, $12.4-million Touchstone U.S. Long/Short Fund. The liquidations are slated for March 26.

Security Equity Fund will liquidate two funds: the Large Cap Concentrated Growth Fund and the Small Cap Growth Fund.

Check back as we continue to update this column throughout the week.

If you have a mutual fund launch or product change that you wish to announce, e-mail the MFWire team at editors@investmentwires.com. 

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