UBS Germany is set to merge its German mid caps fund with its small cap fund as of 30 September, the Swiss asset manager announced today, the new fund will rebrand as UBS Smaller German Companies fund.
As part of the merger, the benchmark index will be changed from SDAX to Msci Small Cap Germany, the latter consists mainly of SDAX and TECDAX firms but also includes a 30% share of MDAX firms.
By merging both funds, UBS hopes to improve its risk return profile, as portfolio manager Thomas Angermann explains: “Some MDAX titles have a market capitalisation of more than €10bn and can therefore hardly be described as mid caps.”
Angermann highlights that the MDAX index has become increasingly concentrated, with the largest value now constituting 10% of the index. By merging the funds and offering a new benchmark, UBS aims to offer a higher active share for mid-cap investors whilst improving liquidity for small cap investors
