MutualFundWire.com: Stork and Reaper for the Week of February 11, 2013
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Stork and Reaper for the Week of February 11, 2013


BIRTHS

Houston-based Salient Partners debuted its Salient Global Equity Fund, PMed by equities chief Ajay Mehra and chief investment officer Lee Partridge.

Guggenheim [profile] announced today the launch of the CurrencyShares Singapore Dollar Trust ETF. The fund will be available to institutional and retail investors. More information is available in the company news release.

Pimco [profile] is launching an actively-managed foreign exchange ETF, the Pimco Foreign Currency Strategy ETF.

Van Eck's Market Vectors has launched the BDC Income ETF.

Yorkville ETF Advisors has launched the Yorkville High Income Infrastructure MLP ETF.

Persimmon Capital has launched the Persimmon Long/Short Fund.

First Trust Advisors has launched the First Trust Preferred Securities and Income ETF.

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management [profile] has launched two strategies: the PowerShares S&P MidCap Low Volatility Portfolio and the PowerShares S&P SmallCap Low Volatility Portfolio.

THE PARTY'S AT CAPACITY

On February, Morningstar reports, Aberdeen [profile] plans to soft-close the five-star, silver-rated, $10.5-billion Aberdeen Emerging Markets Fund. The mutual fund ratings shop notes that Aberdeen manages more than $30 billion worldwide in the strategy. The version for Europeans soft-closed a year ago, thought the version for Australians is still open.

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DEATHS

Northern Lights is liquidating the Currency Strategies Fund.

Schooner is killing the Schooner Global Absolute Return Fund, according to an SEC filing. The fund's assets will be liquidated at the close of business on March 13.

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MARRIAGES

Morningstar reports that Legg Mason [profile] will merge the one-star, $457.4-million Legg Mason Capital Management All Cap Fund into the three star, $803.0-million ClearBridge Large Cap Value Fund on or around July 19, pending shareholder approval. News broke last month that Legg was folding Legg Mason Capital Management into ClearBridge.

Highland Funds [profile] plans to collapse the two-star, $12.7-million Highland International Equity Fund and the two-star, $24.6-million Highland Global Select Equity Fund into the three-star, $188.6-million Highland Core America Equity Fund on or around April 12, then rebrand the combined fund as the Highland Global Allocation Fund.

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MONIKER CHANGE

Pyxis [profile] rebranded itself as Highland Capital Management Fund Advisors, and rebranded its mutual funds accordingly.

Forward Funds [profile] is changing the name of the Forward Extended MarketPlus Fund to the Forward Total MarketPlus Fund.

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BRAIN SURGERY

Putnam [profile] removed Jeff Knight from the PM teams for nine asset allocation mutual funds: the Putnam Absolute Return 500 Fund, the Putnam Absolute Return 700 Fund, the Putnam Dynamic Asset Allocation Balanced Fund, the Putnam Dynamic Asset Allocation Conservative Fund, the Putnam Dynamic Asset Allocation Growth Fund, the Putnam Dynamic Risk Allocation Fund, the Putnam Retirement Income Fund Lifestyle 1, the Putnam Retirement Income Fund Lifestyle 2 and the Putnam Retirement Income Fund Lifestyle 3. News broke at the beginning of the month that Knight was stepping down as head of the Boston-based mutual fund shop's global asset allocation division, and he went to Columbia. Putnam GAA veterans James Fetch, Robert Kea, Robert Schoen and Jason Vaillancourt now lead the GAA division. Those four, along with Joshua Kutin, continue to co-PM the nine funds listed above.

At Columbia [profile], Morningstar reports, Knight takes over as PM of the Columbia Global Opportunities Fund, the Columbia Capital Allocation target-risk funds, the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Fund, the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Enhanced Fund and the Columbia Risk Allocation Fund. He joined Columbia as head of global asset allocation.

Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price [profile] said goodbye to T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Fund PM Kris Jenner and analysts Mark Bussard and Graham McPhail. Analyst Taymour Tamaddon took over the fund.

Battenkill Capital Management no longer serves as sub-advisor to the Alternative Avenue Fund.

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If you have a fund launch or product change that you wish to announce, feel free to send it to us at editors@investmentwires.com.


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