For Immediate Release: Thursday 22 March 2001
UNIT TRUST & INVESTMENT FUND SECTOR CLASSIFICATION CHANGES
Following consultation with member companies and data providers
AUTIF will be going ahead with the following changes to its
sector classification. These amendments have been agreed by
the Executive Committee and will come into force on 1 May
2001.
- The UK Equity and Bond sector will be abolished. Managers
of the three funds in this sector will be contacted so that
alternative arrangements can be made.
- The Managed Income and Cautious Managed sectors will be
merged and will continue under the name and definition of
the Cautious Managed sector. Funds currently in the Managed
Income sector will automatically be included in the Cautious
Managed sector unless the manager advises us otherwise.
- A Latin American sector will be created to accommodate
those funds with a Latin American focus currently classified
in the Global Emerging Markets sector.
- A Specialist Technology sector will be created. This sector
will have no geographical restrictions and will therefore
include for example those UK Technology funds, currently
classified in the UK All Companies sector, that comply with
the new sector definition. "Funds which invest at least
80% of their assets in technology and telecommunications
sectors as defined by major index providers."
- The UK All Companies sector comprising funds "which invest
at least 80% of their assets in UK equities which have a
primary objective of achieving capital growth" has come
in for some criticism for being too large. This is unavoidable
as the sector simply accommodates those funds offered by
providers wanting to compete in this arena. However, the
sector does encompass types of funds with meaningful differences
that are of interest to investors.
In order to make presentation clearer and to enable journalists
writing for the general public to differentiate broad types
of funds should they so wish, it has been decided to create
three sub-sectors within the UK All Companies sector. These
will be ‘Active’, ‘Tracker’ and ‘Ethical’. All funds in the
sector will therefore also be in one of the underlying sub-sectors.
Funds currently ‘flagged’ by the data providers as ‘Tracker’
or ‘Ethical’ will be included in the equivalent sub-sector,
whilst all other funds will be put in the ‘Active’ sub-sector,
unless we are informed otherwise. Journalists analysing funds
on behalf of their readers can therefore view the sector overall,
or focus on a specific sub-sector, or do both.
Sector ranking however, means just that and remains
the same as it is currently i.e. each fund’s position is in
respect of the overall UK All Companies sector, not at sub-sector
level. It is the sector ranking that should be used in advertising.
For further information please contact:
Anne McMeehan, Director of Communications,
AUTIF +44 (0)20 7831 0898
Dorian Carrell, Head of Research and Statistics, AUTIF +44 (0)20
7831 0898
Clare Arber, PR Manager, AUTIF - +44 (0)20 7831 0898
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