Threadneedle set to soft-close Dicken's £1bn European fund

Threadneedle is preparing to soft-close Philip Dicken's £1bn Pan-European Smaller Companies fund, Investment Week understands.

The group has been monitoring flows into the fund after assets swelled from £500m at the start of 2012 to over £1bn, with a view to soft-close in the coming months. Dicken (pictured), head of European equities at Threadneedle, has guided the fund to top quartile returns in the IMA European Smaller Companies sector over one, three and five years to 22 February. With returns of 28.3%, 67.8% and 72% over those respective timeframes, according to Morningstar data, the fund would also have beaten the vast majority of vehicles in the broader IMA Europe ex UK and Europe inc UK sectors over t...