(Bloomberg) — Asset manager Vanguard Group plans to shutter a US mutual fund for the first time since the throes of the pandemic.
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The $98 million Vanguard Alternative Strategies Fund (ticker VASFX) will be liquidated in the second quarter of 2023, according to a press release Tuesday. The fund, which launched in 2015, “has not gained broad acceptance among investors,” Vanguard said.
The liquidation marks the first time that Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard has shuttered a mutual fund since winding up the NJ Municipal Money Market Fund and PA Municipal Money Market Fund in 2020, a spokesperson confirmed over email. The move follows a brutal year for asset managers as the Federal Reserve’s historically aggressive tightening campaign pummeled both stocks and bonds, driving investors to yank billions of dollars from mutual funds.
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Vanguard Fund Fails to Gain Assets | VASFX will be liquidated in the second quarter of 2023
“Liquidations are part of the fund life cycle, and they tend to increase in tough markets,” said Eric Balchunas, a senior exchange-traded fund analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “We expect to see more of this in the coming year.”
Vanguard, which manages $7.6 trillion in assets, also announced Tuesday that it plans to merge the $1.2 billion Vanguard Managed Allocation Fund (VPGDX) into the $17.9 billion Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund (VSMGX). In November, the firm liquidated the Vanguard U.S. Liquidity Factor ETF (VFLQ), its first-ever US ETF to close.
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