Merger of Legg Mason ICVC A (Retail) share classes
Legg Mason has announced the merger of its ICVC A (retail) share classes into its X (non-retail) share classes with effect 10 May 2021. However, RL360 will be taking a different course of action for certain plan owners prior to the merger date.
Impacts on
these defined fund range products
Impacts on
open architecture products including
- PIMS
- Choice
- Select
Legg Mason Investment Funds Limited (“Legg Mason”) will be merging all retail A share classes of its ICVC fund range on 10 May 2021 (the “merger date”) into the equivalent non-retail X share class. Legg Mason has stopped accepting subscriptions into the A share class of the funds with immediate effect.
As some of our products only allow access to retail share classes, below highlights the action RL360 will be taking.
Legg Mason ICVC funds available in our PIMS Focused portfolio bond
PIMS Focused only allows access to retail share classes, therefore any Legg Mason ICVC funds will have to be removed from the product. For plan owners with holdings in the following funds, holdings will not be transferred to the X share class but instead a mandatory redemption will be placed on 30 April 2021 and settlement proceeds paid into the cash account on the portfolio bond. Plan owners have the option to invest in any of the other funds on the PIMS Focused fund range by submitting a deal request.
| Merging fund details |
|---|
| Legg Mason IF Japan Equity A Acc GBP - GB0033507467 |
| Legg Mason IF ClearBridge US Equity A Acc GBP - GB0033506725 |
| Legg Mason IF QS UK Equity A Acc GBP - GB0033506501 |
| Legg Mason IF Royce US Smaller Companies A Acc GBP - GB0034100932 |
Legg Mason ICVC funds available to other portfolio bonds such as PIMS Flexible, Select and Choice
As these products do not have restrictions on share class availability, holdings in any of the merging Legg Mason A share classes will automatically transfer into the X share class on the merger date.
Legg Mason ICVC fund available in our defined fund range products
We feature the Legg Mason IF Japan Equity A Acc GBP fund (the "merging fund") in our Savings and Investment defined fund range. As the Savings and Investment fund range consists only of retail share classes we have no option but to remove it from the range.
As Legg Mason has stopped accepting subscriptions with immediate effect we have had to take the following immediate action:
- The merging fund has been removed from the Savings and Investments fund range and is no longer available for investment
- On 2 March 2021 existing holdings were switched from the merging fund, including the redirection of any regular payment allocation where applicable, to an alternative fund available to the Savings and Investments fund range.
The alternative fund is the Invesco Japanese Equity Advantage A Acc USD Hedged (the “receiving fund”). Investors should note that the merging fund is denominated in GBP, whilst the receiving fund is USD, therefore, if a plan is not denominated in USD, the plan value in the receiving fund will be subject to currency fluctuations.
We have written to plan owners, or their appointed investment adviser, impacted by the merger informing them of the action we have taken and their option for switching to a new fund if they prefer. Servicing financial advisers will receive a sample of the letter for their information. Samples of these letters can be found opposite.
The table below details the merging fund and the receiving fund into which they will be switched.
| Merging fund & ISIN | Receiving fund & ISIN |
|---|---|
| Legg Mason IF Japan Equity A Acc GBP - GB0033507467 | Invesco Japanese Equity Advantage A Acc USD Hgd - LU1934327195
|
_______________________________________________________________________
For more information about Invesco visit https://www.invesco.lu/lu