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Products March 24, 2009
Fidelity Reopens Two, Launches One
Fidelity Investments has announced plans to reopen two existing funds, and to open a third.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
According to the announcement, the Fidelity Diversified International Fund and Fidelity Small Cap Stock Fund will reopen to new investors and accounts, effective after 4:00 p.m. on March 30, 2009. The funds have been closed since October 2004 and June 2006, respectively.
Fidelity also announced that a new fund – Fidelity Global Commodity Stock Fund – will be available to individual investors and through advisors, effective March 31, 2009.
“We always evaluate whether to open or close funds on a case–by–case basis. In this instance, the funds share some common characteristics that prompted us to reopen both of them at this time,” said Walter C. Donovan, president, Equity Division, Fidelity Management & Research Company. “The vast majority of the assets invested in both funds – 93 percent for Diversified International Fund and 86 percent for Small Cap Stock Fund – are earmarked for retirement. In the normal course of investing, many shareholders have continued to redeem assets as they’ve met their financial goals. Since the funds have been closed, they have not been able to generate sufficient levels of new sales to offset current and future redemptions.”
“We believe reopening the funds will help bring some equilibrium to cash flows in order to ensure Bill and Andy can most effectively direct their investment strategies. It’s effectively the inverse of the reason why we limited new purchases of the funds over the past few years. At that time, we were seeing strengthening cash inflows, and we expected that trend to continue.”
- The Fidelity Diversified International Fund, which seeks capital growth by investing primarily in the common stocks of non–U.S. companies, has been managed by William Bower since 2001.
- The Fidelity Small Cap Stock Fund, which Fidelity says seeks long–term growth of capital by normally investing at least 80 percent of its assets in common stocks of companies with small market capitalizations, has been managed by Andrew Sassine since July 2008.
Fidelity also announced the launch of Fidelity Global Commodity Stock Fund, a new equity fund with retail and Advisor share classes. According to the announcement, the Fidelity Global Commodity Stock Fund will normally invest at least 80% of its assets in stocks of companies whose primary business is in energy, metals or agriculture, and will “seek capital appreciation and invest in securities issued anywhere in the world, including the United States,’ according to the firm. The new fund will be available to investors on March 31, 2009.
The new fund provides a global specialized option for investors looking to allocate a portion of their portfolio to stocks of companies in the energy, metals and agriculture
industries.
Fidelity notes that, “unlike pure commodity funds, which invest in commodity linked notes, futures or other derivative instruments, Global Commodity Stock Fund will invest across the universe of stocks in the energy, metals and agriculture industries.” The new fund will be managed by Joseph Wickwire, who also manages Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio and Fidelity Advisor Gold Fund. Prior to joining Fidelity in 2007, Wickwire spent 20 years at Evergreen Investments in Boston where his responsibilities have included managing a precious metals fund from 2004 until 2007 and serving as a director and analyst from 1999 until 2004, following the Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand equity markets as well as precious metal, base metal and paper industries.