Fidelity Muni MMFs Fail Merger Vote
A Prospectus Supplement filing for the Fidelity Michigan Municipal Funds (the Fidelity Arizona, Connecticut, Ohio and Pennsylvania Municipal Funds contain virtually the same text) tells us, "On November 16, 2022, Fidelity Michigan Municipal Money Market Fund did not receive sufficient votes of shareholders to attain quorum with respect to the proposal to approve an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization between Fidelity Michigan Municipal Money Market Fund and Fidelity Municipal Money Market Fund. In light of the failure to attain quorum, Fidelity Michigan Municipal Money Market Fund will liquidate pursuant to a plan of liquidation approved by the Fidelity Michigan Municipal Money Market Fund's Board of Trustees on July 14, 2022. The fund will no longer pursue its stated investment objective and fund assets will be managed to provide for sufficient liquidity prior to liquidation. The fund is expected to liquidate on or about January 13, 2023. This date may be changed without notice at the discretion of the fund's officers. Effective after the close of business on December 1, 2022, new positions in the fund may no longer be opened. Existing shareholders may continue to hold their shares and purchase additional shares through the reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions until the fund's liquidation." (See our July 20 News, "Fidelity Merging State Muni Money Market Funds," which said, "Fidelity Investments filed to liquidate and reorganize most of their State Municipal money market funds, merging the AZ, CT, MI, OH, and PA Muni MMFs into Fidelity Municipal Money Market Fund, and consolidating their CA, MA, NJ and NY State Muni fund offerings. While there haven't been many moves in 2022, there has been a steady stream of exits in the Tax-Exempt money fund space, driven by years of near-zero yields and money fund reforms. Over the past 5 years, the number of Municipal money market funds has dropped from 245 to 150, while the number of State Municipal funds has fallen from 116 to 53. Since June 2008, assets in Muni MMFs have steadily declined from $490.6 billion to $111.4 billion (as of 6/30/22). Fidelity currently manages 33 Municipal MMFs with $28.0 billion; after these mergers go through, the lineup will be reduced to 20 Muni MMFs.) For more on recent liquidations in the space, see our Crane Data News pieces: "SSGA to Liquidate State Street ESG Liquid Reserves; ICI MMF Holdings (9/19/22); "DWS Liquidating Govt Cash Mgmt Fund; Weekly MF Portfolio Holdings (7/2/22), "Ivy Funds Liquidating ... Again (6/2/22); "Meeder Liquidating Prime Money Fund (11/12/21); "AIG Govt MMF, MuniFund Liquidate (8/3/21), "Western Files to Liquidate Tiny MMFs (6/7/21), "BlackRock Liquidates Ready Assets (2/11/21), "Delaware Liquidates Govt Cash Mgmt" (1/11/21); "DWS Liquidating Govt CR (BIRXX)" (11/25/20); "BMO Liquidating Inst Prime MMF" (11/17/20); "Morgan Stanley NY Muni MM Gone" (10/5/20); "SEC's Blass on Push for More MMF Reforms; Vanguard Liquidating PA, NJ" (9/28/20) and "Franklin, Legg Mason Deal Signals More Consolidation; More Liquidations (2/20/20).
