Delaware Investments of Philadelphia announced last week that it plans to cut 14 funds from its lineup through fund mergers and liquidations over the next couple of months, bringing the company's total mutual fund offerings to 49.
Eleven funds are to be merged into funds with similar investment objectives and three funds are to be liquidated, according to the company. The mergers are pending shareholder approval.
"In every case, these are funds that never attracted enough assets to achieve any strong economies of scale and that made it difficult for us to manage these Funds to the benefit of our shareholders," said Karina Istvan, senior vice president of retail product management for Delaware, in a statement.
"[Trimming fund rosters is] a trend that is likely to continue [in the industry]," said Istvan. "There are many mutual fund companies that offer too many funds. They are finding, as we did, that they want to focus on doing what they do well, because good performance attracts assets."
