Please be aware of the upcoming merger, as communicated in the mailing to the existing unitholders on 22/03/2019, ASI have proposed that the Donor funds merge into the Host funds as detailed in the brief sheet below.

Unitholders were invited to vote at the EGM on 12/04/2019, and following approval of the proposal, the merger will take place with the effective date of 03/05/2019.

Electronic Re-registrations will be restricted in the Donor funds from 12:00 on 25/04/2019, it will be possible to instruct re-registrations by fax, telephone or post up to 12:00 on 02/05/19.

Donor fund repurchase instructions that are received after 12:00 on 02/05/19 will be dealt into the Host fund for value date 07/05/19.

Donor fund instructions to invest that are received after the cut off; 12:00 on 02/05/2019 will be rejected.

Should you have any queries on this communication please contact the DST Distributor Client Services Team, our contact details can be found by clicking here.

Due to a ten-day ‘Golden Week’ holiday period in Japan this year, non-dealing days will be declared on the Threadneedle Japan Fund from Friday 26 April until Monday 6 May 2019 inclusive This means that investors will be unable to buy, sell, ISA transfer or switch shares in the Threadneedle Japan Fund during this period until the Fund reopens for dealing on Tuesday 7 May 2019.   

Please note that STP dealing will be restricted between these dates.

The ISINs for the share classes impacted are listed below:  

Effective 1 May 2019 the dividend distribution frequency of the Invesco European Equity Income Fund (UK) will change from semi-annual to quarterly. 

The new distribution dates are as follows:

This change affects the following share classes:

From 29 April to 6 May 2019 the Tokyo Stock Exchange will be closed during Japan’s Golden Week holiday, which is longer than usual to mark the abdication of Japan’s emperor.

The Japanese Equity team will be unable to trade and pricing issues may arise, Invesco have marked the days of Golden Week as non-dealing days for both the Invesco Japan Fund (UK) and the Invesco Japanese Smaller Companies Fund (UK).

No prices will be issued for the funds on these days, and any dealing instructions received from 12 noon on Thursday 25 April 2019 to Monday 6 May 2019 will be processed at 12 noon on Tuesday 7 May 2019.

You can download a copy of the client mailings here.

Fund facts as at 28 February 2019

Fund name: Invesco Japan Fund (UK) Launch date: 7 May 1988 Fund size: £289.6m  

Share types               SEDOL            ISIN                MEXID     Citi Codes  

Accumulation                3302811     GB0033028118     PPJG           PE29  

Accumulation (No Trail) B3RS847     GB00B3RS8478     BRIVSC       FCW0  

Y (Accumulation)          BJ04J30      GB00BJ04J309      BRAAHR      K63C  

Z (Accumulation)          B8N44W4    GB00B8N44W47   BRGAAR      GUVL  

Fund name: Invesco Japanese Smaller Companies Fund (UK) Launch date: 6 September 1983 Fund size: £61.8m  

Share types                SEDOL            ISIN                MEXID     Citi Codes  

Accumulation                 3303041       GB0033030411     BRJSA       BR26  

Accumulation (No Trail)   B3RSBS2     GB00B3RSBS25     BRPPTC     FCT0  

Y (Accumulation)            BJ04J52       GB00BJ04J523      BRAAHT    K63D  

Z (Accumulation)            B8N46G2     GB00B8N46G29     BRJASM     GUXW  

Merian Global Investors has appointed FNZ as its UK Transfer Agent and will replace DST as administrator effective from 1 April 2019.

Please arrange to hold any trading from 12pm 29 March 2019 via STP or fax until the fund range has been transferred to FNZ from Monday 1 April 2019. 

STP Trading – EMX & CTN

Electronic trading via EMX and CTN will be temporarily suspended in line with the below valuation points;

12pm VP– Suspended from 12pm 29 March 2019 for Merian funds

We will be closing Electronic Re-Registration for Merian between 25 March 2019 and 29 March 2019 (inclusive).

Any electronic trades submitted after the above suspension times will be automatically rejected. You will need to refer to the new Transfer Agent for the updated hub IDs to use. 

STP Settlement –CREST & CTN NS

We will be closing CREST & CTN NS for Merian funds between 25 March 2019 and 29 March 2019 (inclusive). The last traded Valuation Point to settle via CREST & CTN NS will be 22 March 2019.

Please note the CREST service will remain open for reconciliation and transferring of units between CREST participants under the existing CREST IDs over this period.

Please ensure you have made all relevant internal parties aware of these changes and updates are made in line with the dates above.

DST are unable to comment on the operation under the new administrators however, should you have any queries on this communication please contact the DST Distributor Client Services Team, our contact details can be found by clicking here.

The intended effective date of the Mergers will be 17 May 2019. Upon completion of the Mergers each of the Existing Funds will be terminated.

Further to the recent shareholder communication regarding the fund merger concerning the Royal London Short Duration Credit Fund, please note that the merger was approved at the EGM held on 20th March 2019. Therefore merger will be effective 12th April 2019. Please take note of the following detail:

• Client dealing in respect of the donor fund (subscriptions and redemptions) will be suspended after the 12 noon VP on 11/04/2019.
• The cut off point for free switches into or out of the donor fund is 12 noon 11/04/19.
• Valuations used for the purposes of the merger 12 noon 12/04/19
• The new Host Fund is open for dealing at 9:00 a.m. on 15/04/19

Should you have any queries on this communication please contact the DST Distributor Client Services Team, our contact details can be found by clicking here.

Further to the recent shareholder communication regarding the fund merger concerning the Royal London Ethical Bond Fund, please note that the merger was approved at the EGM held on 20th March 2019. Therefore merger will be effective 12th April 2019. Please take note of the following detail:

• Client dealing in respect of the donor fund (subscriptions and redemptions) will be suspended after the 12 noon VP on 11/04/2019.
• The cut off point for free switches into or out of the donor fund is 12 noon 11/04/19.
• Valuations used for the purposes of the merger 12 noon 12/04/19
• The new Host Fund is open for dealing at 9:00 a.m. on 15/04/19

Further to the recent mailing to notify current Donor shareclass unitholders of the upcoming event, dealing in the donor shareclass will be suspended after the 12:00VP on 29/03/19. All shares in the donor class will be converted to the host share class as detailed in the below table using the 12:05 VP of 29/03/19.

Should you have any queries on this communication please contact the DST Distributor Client Services Team, our contact details can be found by clicking here.

Further to the recent communication to investors confirming that the below shareclass will close as of 27/03/2019, the last day to accept subscriptions and top-ups is 13/03/2019, repurchases and switch or transfers out will be accepted up to 12:00 on 26/03/2019.

Remaining unitholders in the closing shareclass will be repurchased in the valuation point at 12:00 noon on 27/03/2019.

On 04/03/19, a notification letter was issued to the current unitholders of the shareclasses listed below to inform them that the fund will be closing on 08/04/19.

Dealing in the closing shareclasses will continue up to the Valuation point of 12pm on 05/04/19, after this time dealing will be suspended and the fund will be closed as described in the letter.

Should you have any queries on this communication please contact the DST Distributor Client Services Team, our contact details can be found by clicking here.

DST will be completing a system migration affecting accounts held under the T. Rowe Price OEIC fund range. As a result, the OEIC ACD will be changing to TRP UK on 11th March 2019. To coincide with the system migration, new account numbers will be generated for existing holdings for use on and after Monday 11 March 2019. To facilitate this update we will also be restricting STP trading in the afternoon of 8 March 2019.
 

Automated Dealing - EMX & Calastone:

After the 12:00 VP on 8 March 2019 we will be restricting trading through both EMX and Calastone. Any trading submitted after the above VP will be rejected until the funds are re-opened on 11 March 2019. Please ensure your trades are resubmitted using the new account numbers we will provide to you shortly.

As of Monday 11 March 2019, when trading on EMX you will need to use the new Product Number “000001” as the old Product Number “ProductTRP” will no longer be in use.

Automated Dealing – SWIFT:

Any SWIFT trades instructed after the 12:00 VP on 8 March 2019 will not be placed. Please ensure your trades are resubmitted on 11 March 2019 using the new account numbers we will provide to you shortly.

Manual Dealing - Telephone, Fax and Post:

Telephone deals instructed after the 12:00 VP on 8 March 2019 will not be placed and need to be reinstructed on Monday 11 March 2019.

Trades instructed via fax or post will be held and placed on Monday 11 March 2019. The PO Box address and fax number will be updated for all trades instructed on and after Monday 11 March 2019. The relevant pages on www.dstdistributorportal.com will be updated with any changes to the contact details.

Settlement: Trades placed up to and on Friday 8 March 2019 can continue to be settled to the current bank details you have on file. All trades placed on or after Monday 11th March 2019 (settling 14 March 2019 onwards) will need to be settled to the following bank details:   



 We have updated the bank details provided on https://www.dstdistributorportal.com/fund-groups/item/t-rowe-price in line with this change.

Please ensure you have made all relevant internal parties aware of these changes and updates are made in line with the dates above.

Due to the merger activities of non-sterling share classes between M&G Securities Ltd and M&G International Investments SA, M&G have announced the dealing suspension of related Sterling share classes of the M&G Optimal Income Fund at 12:00pm noon on 07/03/2019 until 11/03/2019. The individual share classes and market identifiers are shown on the following pages.

Operational Details:

• Deals received for these share classes during the suspension period will be queued and placed at the first valuation point following the unsuspension.
• Stock transfer requests will continue to be accepted but will not be processed during the suspension period.
• Other features of these share classes will continue to function including distribution accruals, rebate accruals and pricing.
• The share classes will be priced and published as usual on 08/03/2019.
• Prices will not be calculated on 11/03/2019 but published prices will be issued on this date which will be the same as the prices made on 08/03/2019.
• Usual pricing will resume on 12/03/2019.
• All sterling share classes of M&G’s other OEIC funds are not affected by these dealing suspensions and will operate as business as usual.

Effective 1 March 2019 the following changes will be made to the Invesco Global Distribution Fund (UK):  

• Fund name changes to Invesco Global Income Fund (UK)  
• Flexibility to invest up to 60% in equities (currently 40% max)  
• Distribution type changes from interest to dividend   
• Investment Series name changes name from ‘Invesco Fixed Interest 2 Investment Series’ to ‘Invesco 3 Investment Series’ (this will also affect the Invesco Global Emerging Markets Bond Fund (UK) that resides within this Investment Series)  

Please click here for further details of the notice.