Smaller Companies

Aberforth founder and fund manager David Ross is to retire in May 2014 after leading the firm for nearly 25 years, Investment Week understands.

Standard Life Investments's Harry Nimmo has pointed to three trends in 2014 that could continue a run of performance that has seen the manager return nearly 200% over five years.

Threadneedle is to close its £12m Japanese Smaller Companies fund due to its uneconomical size and "limited demand" for the strategy.

The vast majority of UK smaller companies funds have failed to produce significant alpha for investors over the past year, with the average fund's return lagging one benchmark index by ten percentage points.

Close Brothers has suspended redemptions on Deryck Noble-Nesbitt's Special Situations fund ahead of an expected wind-up of the portfolio in August this year.

The UK small cap market has done spectacularly well over the last year, leaving some to question where potential upside will come from next, but stock pickers say there are still some gems that can keep on rising.

The FTSE Small Cap index has risen sharply for ten consecutive months, but is there still value in the UK small cap space or should investors take profits and look elsewhere?

Fidelity is to restrict inflows into Alex Wright's UK Smaller Companies fund in an effort to preserve performance.

Liontrust has scrapped rebates on its successful UK Smaller Companies fund, run by managers Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh, as it moves to premium price the product.

M&G has hired Matthew Cable as deputy manager on its £370m Smaller Companies fund following a tough spell which has seen it drop down the rankings.