(Bloomberg) — Asset manager Vanguard Group plans to shut down a U.S. mutual fund for the first time since the pandemic broke out.
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According to Tuesday’s press release, the $98 million Vanguard Alternative Strategy Fund (ticker: VASFX) will be liquidated in the second quarter of 2023. Vanguard said the fund launched in 2015 “wasn’t open to investors. widely accepted”.
The liquidation marks the first time Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard has closed a mutual fund since the end of the NJ City Money Market Fund and the PA City Money Market Fund in 2020, a development confirmed by email. The move comes after a brutal year for asset managers as the Federal Reserve’s historically powerful tightening campaign sent both stocks and bonds plunging, sending investors withdraw billions of dollars from mutual funds.
“Liquidations are part of the fund lifecycle, and they tend to increase in tough markets,” said Eric Balchunas, senior analyst for exchange-traded funds at Bloomberg Intelligence. “We hope to see more of this in the coming year.”
Vanguard, the $7.6 trillion asset management company, also announced on Tuesday that it plans to consolidate a $1.2 billion Vanguard Managed Allocation Fund (VPGDX). into the $17.9 billion Vanguard LifeStrategy (VSMGX) Moderate Growth Fund. In November, the company liquidated the Vanguard US Liquidity Factor ETF (VFLQ), the first ETF in the United States to close.
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