bad mutual fund journalism: "Carlyle to close two mutual funds in liquid alts setback"

David_Snowball

It's all of the place this morning:

Reuters: "Carlyle to shutter its two mutual funds"
Bloomberg: "Carlyle to close two mutual funds in liquid alts setback"
Ignites: "Carlyle pulls plug on two mutual funds"
ValueWalk: "Carlyle to liquidate a pair of mutual funds"
Barron's: "Carlyle closing funds, gold slips"
MFWire dutifully linked to three of them in its morning link list

Business Insider gets it closest to right: "Private equity giant Carlyle Group is shutting down the two mutual funds it launched just a year ago," including Carlyle Global Core Allocation Fund.

What's my beef?

1. Carlyle doesn't have two mutual funds, they have one. They have authorization to launch the second fund, but never have. It's like shuttering an unbuilt house. Reuters, nonetheless, solemnly notes that the second fund "never took off [and] will also be wound down," implying that - despite Carlyle's best efforts, it was just an undistinguished performer.

2. There is no such fund as Carlyle Global Core Allocation Fund. Its name is Carlyle Core Allocation Fund (CCAIX/CCANX). It's rather like the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund that, despite Janus's insistence, didn't exist at the point that Mr. Gross joined the team. "Global" is a description but not in the name.

3. The Carlyle fund is not newsworthy: it's less than one year old (I detest the practice of tossing a fund into the market then shutting it in its first year; it really speaks poorly of the adviser's planning, understanding and commitment), it has a trivial asset base ($50 million) and has made a penny ($10,000 at inception is now $9930).

4. The stories tend to make exactly the same points, in some cases using virtually identical phrasing.

David

heezsafe

And just to add to the strangeness......... perhaps I have ownership confusion, or my memory is stale, but isn't Reuters owned by The Carlyle Group?

Ted

@heezsafe: No !
Regards,
Ted
Thomson Reuters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_Reuters

heezsafe

@Ted Whoa, take me to school, will ya? That miss was so wide of the mark it is a wonder there were no bystanders injured. My sincere apologies to all living descendants of his lordship Thomson. And now, it's time to go figure out the source of that ownership confusion............ something got misfiled somewhere, but what?

VintageFreak

Carlyle Group had close ties with the Bush family and maybe the Saudis I think. Anyway, here's the wiki FWIW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carlyle_Group

JohnChisum

Also some past ties to members of the Clinton administration.