MutualFundWire.com: Dreman Shutters Five Funds

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Friday, November 30, 2012

Dreman Shutters Five Funds

Dreman Value Management [profile] has filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to liquidate five funds.

The funds to be liquidated are: the Dreman High Opportunity Fund, which according to Morningstar had $9.4 million AUM; the Dreman Contrarian Mid Cap Value Fund, with $2 million AUM; the Dreman Market Over-Reaction Fund, with $11.2 million; the Dreman Contrarian International Value Fund, with $1.9 million, and the $1.4 million Dreman Contrarian Value Equity Fund.

According to the filing, the funds' "board determined that it was in the best interests of the Funds and their shareholders for each Fund to cease operations due to the adviser’s conclusion that it is no longer economically viable to continue managing the Funds because of increasing regulatory and operating costs borne by the adviser as a result of each Fund’s small asset size."

A Morningstar note on the liquidations had this to say on the subject:

The funds to be liquidated were incepted between 2003 and 2011. While some of the funds to be liquidated had decent performance in their lifetimes, many never gained more than a few million dollars in assets. Currently, Dreman Contrarian Value Equity, Dreman Contrarian International Value, and Dreman Contrarian Mid Cap Value have just over $5 million in assets combined.

The funds' liquidation potentially illustrates Dreman's change in focus from managing in-house assets to focusing on subadvisory relationships. Dreman currently has $115 million of open-end mutual fund assets under management and has experienced five consecutive quarters of outflows. In contrast, Dreman subadvises three funds for DWS, which have combined assets of more than $2 billion.