A division of Manulife Financial Corp. announced on October 17:
the receipt of the required approvals from securityholders to proceed with certain of the previously announced proposed fund mergers. It is currently anticipated that the mergers will be implemented at the close of business on or about October 24, 2014 and on or about November 7, 2014, as detailed below.
Fund Mergers
For the mergers listed below, Manulife Investments has received the following approvals from securityholders to proceed with implementing the mergers on or about October 24, 2014:
Terminating Fund Continuing Fund Approval status Manulife International Value Equity Class Manulife International Value Equity Fund Approved Manulife Preferred Income Fund Manulife Preferred Income Class Approved
The inception date of the surviving fund was August 1, 2013 and accordingly performance reports date back only to then.
The last performance data I have for the non-surviving fund may provide a clue as to why the old fund was dropped, but only very nasty, cynical people would dream of a connection:
| Performance to September 30, 2014 | ||
| Period | BMO-CM “50” Index | Manulife Preferred Income Fund |
| One Month | -0.76% | -1.07% |
| Three Months | -0.11% | +0.15% |
| One Year | +4.14% | +3.07% |
| Three Years | +3.67% | +1.48% |
| Five Years | +5.74% | +2.91% |