The American investment giant Goldman Sachs is closing its Belgian fund, Goldman Sachs (B) Invest. The last compartment will be transferred to a fund in Luxembourg through a cross-border merger.
Goldman Sachs is transferring the Goldman Sachs BENE Equity Opportunities (B) compartment to its Luxembourg fund, Goldman Sachs Fund III.
The compartment, with net assets of €94.6 million as of September 2023, invested in major Belgian and Dutch companies such as KBC, AB InBev, ASML, and Ahold Delhaize. It will be absorbed into the Europe Sustainable Small Cap Equity compartment of the larger Luxembourg fund.
“The merger is part of a strategic review of the fund offering of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a rationalisation of the products we offer to investors,” according to the official documents. “As a result of the merger, the shareholders of the absorbed compartment will gain access to a broader investment universe.”
However, the two compartments are not fully interchangeable. While one had an exclusive Belgian-Dutch focus, the other invests in European companies. The relocation to Luxembourg may also have tax implications for investors.
With the end of the BENE compartment, the entire Belgian fund Goldman Sachs (B) Invest ceases to exist, as this compartment was the last one within that fund.
Acquisition of NN IP
In April 2022, Goldman Sachs acquired the Dutch firm NN Investment Partners. The closure of the Belgian fund is likely related to this acquisition. The SICAV, headquartered on the Kunstlaan in Brussels, was known as NN (B) Invest until early last year and has a history that dates back to the former BBL bank (now ING Belgium).
“This was an internal administrative reorganisation and does not impact the activities or services we provide to clients,” is the only comment Goldman Sachs is willing to provide.
Cross-border mergers of Belgian investment funds are uncommon, says the fund federation Beama. They may be driven by issues with internal governance, a historical overlap of offerings, changes in tax or other regulations, or reorganisations of asset managers.