Deutsche Bank sent out a press release yesterday entitled, "Henderson Appoints Deutsche Bank's Asset Management Division as Investment Manager of Henderson Liquid Assets Fund." It says, "Henderson Global Investors and DB Advisors, the institutional fixed income asset management arm of Deutsche Bank, today announced that DB Advisors will be appointed investment manager of the Henderson Liquid Assets Fund on a sub-advisory basis with effect from 12 October 2010."
The release explains, "HLAF is a L3.3 billion Irish domiciled AAA-rated GBP-denominated, treasury-style money market fund. It aims to provide a constant net asset value with a 7-day London Interbank Bid Rate return and is exclusively offered to institutional or professional investors. The appointment of DB Advisors follows a review by Henderson of its cash investment business in light of potential changes to the way that the money market fund industry is regulated. With over E94 billion in money market assets under management, DB Advisors is a leading global provider of liquidity management strategies for institutions."
David Jacob, Chief Investment Officer of Listed Assets at Henderson says, "In conducting this review and coming to this decision we focused on finding the best outcome for investors in HLAF. DB Advisors has a significant international global money market business with a first rate reputation and utilises an extensive range of cash investment instruments. HLAF investors, including Henderson's institutional clients, will be able to benefit from greater access to these resources going forward. The Henderson cash team are passing the fund to DB Advisors with an excellent track record. The team will now focus on Henderson's investment-style money market funds, the Henderson Cash Fund and the Henderson Money Market Unit Trust, which are variable net asset value funds used by our retail investors."
Mark Bolton, Head of DB Advisors UK, comments in the release, "We are delighted to have this opportunity to add value for investors in the Henderson Liquid Assets Fund. We are committed to offering investors in the UK the full benefit of our global services, including cash and short-duration investment solutions."
Henderson Liquid Assets Fund plc was launched January 6, 2003. The release adds, "The Company is an Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities under the European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations 1989, of Ireland. The company has received an Aaa/MR1+ rating from Moody's (06 Jan 2003) and an AAA/mmf rating from Fitch (19 Jan 2010). Assets under management: L3.3 billion (as at 30 September 2010)."
The fund's Objective is, "To provide an attractive rate of return commensurate with security of capital through investment in short-term deposits, certificates of deposit and other money market instruments. The performance objective will be to outperform 1 week LIBID rates over the longer term, from a diversified portfolio of money market instruments such as will qualify the Fund for an Aaa/MR1+ rating from Moody's and an AAA/mmf rating from Fitch."
DB Advisors is the 7th largest manager of "offshore" money market funds (those domiciled in Dublin or Luxembourg and marketed to European and multinational corporations) with $21.5 billion, according to Crane's Money Fund Intelligence International. (MFII currently doesn't track Henderson's money market fund.)
