Gartmore Irish Growth fund windup

cnile_2

Could anyone explain to me why Gartmore are thinking of winding up their Irish fund. Its share price seems to be holding up. It is difficult to decide whether to sell now, or wait and see what happens.

jimjames

More info here

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20101221110022P710F

I sold out in the latter part of last year having decided that with the situation in Ireland I could make better use of the money elsewhere. From that article it appeared that others thought the same.

barak

cnile wrote: »

Could anyone explain to me why Gartmore are thinking of winding up their Irish fund.

It's an Investment Trust with independent directors. Gartmore have had the contract to manage it, and for many years it was managed by Gervais Williams. His departure from Gartmore last autumn must be a factor as well as any other Irish and/or Gartmore problems.

Another of the Investment Trusts Gervais Williams managed successfully - Gartmore Growth Opportunities [originally NatWest Smaller Companies] - no longer exists as such, the directors having given Gartmore notice and negotiated its merger with Artemis Alpha Trust.

Loughton_Monkey

Gartmore are a 'troubled' company at the moment, and so I would tend to give them a wide berth anyway. They are presumably grooming themselves for takeover.

barak

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Gartmore are a 'troubled' company at the moment, and so I would tend to give them a wide berth anyway.

Yes, but Gartmore Irish Growth isn't a Gartmore asset and so surely whether to hold or sell doesn't depend on Gartmore's health - rather on the share price/NAV discount which appears to have reduced from about 15% to about 5% in the last few months, perhaps in expectation of a possible winding up. :undecided

Loughton_Monkey

barak wrote: »

Yes, but Gartmore Irish Growth isn't a Gartmore asset and so surely whether to hold or sell doesn't depend on Gartmore's health - rather on the share price/NAV discount which appears to have reduced from about 15% to about 5% in the last few months, perhaps in expectation of a possible winding up. :undecided

Totally understood. But I would still give them a wide berth simply because all the good fund managers have left, and I would imagine that the FM's they have are worrying rather more about their next employers rather than how their assets are performing.

barak

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Totally understood. But I would still give them a wide berth simply because all the good fund managers have left, and I would imagine that the FM's they have are worrying rather more about their next employers rather than how their assets are performing.

I might well agree with you about Gartmore but this thread is about Gartmore Irish Growth Fund plc. I don't want to go on and on about this, but your "them" ["give them a wide berth"] effectively no longer includes "Gartmore Irish Growth Fund plc". The directors of the Investment Trust gave Gartmore three months notice sometime in December and are clearly looking after the interests of their shareholders.

"The Board has served notice under the management contract with Gartmore
Investment Limited, which has a three-month notice period. The Manager is
creating greater liquidity in the portfolio, both to finance the continuing
buyback operation and for the cash requirement in the event that shareholders
approve the dissolution."

jimjames

barak wrote: »

I might well agree with you about Gartmore but this thread is about Gartmore Irish Growth Fund plc. I don't want to go on and on about this, but your "them" ["give them a wide berth"] effectively no longer includes "Gartmore Irish Growth Fund plc". The directors of the Investment Trust gave Gartmore three months notice sometime in December and are clearly looking after the interests of their shareholders.

And that is one of the advantages of an investment trust compared to a unit trust. They are not owned by the manager and can move to a new management team if the board believe it is in the interest of the shareholders. In theory the board could have taken out a new management contract with the company that the previous manager moved to in order to keep him. In this instance they didnt but it has happened in the past.

cnile_2

Thank you all for your comments, they have been very helpful.
Its still not an easy decision to know whether to hold or sell, especially when the price is holding reasonably well. But then if I had the insight on the best time to sell shares, I would be as rich as Bill Gates,

Regards to all