(Bloomberg) -- Vanguard Group Inc., the largest U.S. mutual-fund firm, is merging a number of funds with similar objectives and reducing the number of share classes it offers to simplify its lineup.
Vanguard, in a statement today, said it’s combining the $16.3 billion Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund with the $18.4 billion Vanguard Tax-Managed International Fund; the $3 billion Vanguard Tax-Managed Growth and Income Fund with the $143 billion Vanguard 500 Index Fund; the $738 million Vanguard Growth Equity Fund and the $4.4 billion Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund; and three portfolios of the Vanguard Managed Payout Fund series.
The firm, based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, will phase out its Signal shares and make the Admiral share class available to more clients, it said in a separate statement.
“Over the past five years we have moved to simplify our funds and our overall fund lineup,” said William McNabb III, Vanguard’s chief executive officer.
Vanguard manages $2.3 trillion in U.S. mutual fund assets, including more than $300 billion in exchange-traded funds.
