Important information regarding
R45 Global Growth Protector Fund

From Monday 27th October R45 Global Growth Protector Fund will be closed for new business and any switch requests.

However, any pipeline business will be honoured for one week.

Please see below for further details about the closure of this fund.

Given the unprecedented fall in global stockmarkets, the underlying fund has proven its defensive qualities in providing investors with a high level of protection. This is set at 80% protection of the fund’s highest net asset value (NAV) and is provided by HSBC. The current minimum protected price floor of 82.41 cannot be reduced. However as a result of the protection mechanism, the fund is now fully invested in cash assets, given the sheer scale of equity market falls.

In these circumstances, the other objective of maximising equity exposure to generate growth cannot now be achieved. We therefore have taken the decision to close both the underlying and mirror funds to new business with immediate effect.

For existing investors the fund will remain as currently positioned. We are currently working on the best options for a future market recovery and will be communicating these shortly to you and your clients. Existing regular savings schemes can continue to be directed into the mirror fund during this period, but investors can switch current holdings and re-direct ongoing premiums into any other mirror fund of their choice without charge, if they wish.

We hope that you will understand the reasoning behind this action and apologise for any inconvenience caused by such swift action. Friends Provident International remains committed to offering a market leading range of investment solutions and we will be looking to bolster our proposition in the protected fund space during these immensely challenging times.