The firm stated a priority to protect the interests of existing investors following significant fund inflows.
In a letter to investors, Stuart Paul, managing partner at sub-brand First State Stewart, said: “We continue to believe that our first duty must be to our existing investors in ensuring we manage the scale of funds under our management responsibly.
“We will continue to monitor fund flows closely in the months to come and will advise of any further action we might propose to take to our broader range of funds.”
First State has a history of soft closing large funds – in 2003 it closed its All Cap funds, First State Asia Pacific Fund and Global Emerging Markets Fund so these portfolios could continue to invest further down the cap scale.
GEM Leaders can only invest in companies with a free float of more than $1.5bn, a relatively low threshold which it says has allowed Asante to maintain a mid-cap flavour in the portfolio.
First State has already stopped accepting new institutional and platform clients in to the Leaders strategies while, last year it soft closed Asia Pacific Sustainability Fund, Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Fund, Greater China Growth Fund, Indian Subcontinent Fund and Latin America Fund.
Gavin Haynes, investment director at Whitechurch Securities, said: “The soft closure comes as no surprise as we were aware that the management had concerns over potential capacity constraints.
"Along with Aberdeen, this fund has been the default choice for broad GEM exposure. The recent closure of both these funds makes selection in these markets much trickier.”
Have emerging markets fallen into the middle-income trap? Find out here.
