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Putnam Voyager Fund Will Be Merged Out Of Existence

TedTed
in Fund Discussions
FYI: Putnam Investment Management will merge its long-time flagship stock mutual fund out of existence this summer, according to a filing with regulators.

Assets in the $3.3 billion Putnam Voyager Fund (PVOYX) will be absorbed by the $609 million Putnam Growth Opportunities Fund (POGAX) in the middle of July. Robert Brookby, portfolio manager of Growth Opportunities Fund since 2009 and Voyager since February, will run the unified fund, the filing says. Brookby took over for Nick Thakore, who left the firm. He had run Voyager since 2008. From the filing.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.barrons.com/focusonfunds/2016/05/04/putnam-voyager-fund-will-be-merged-out-of-existence/tab/print/

Comments

  • David_Snowball
    edited May 2016
    from our May commentary on the merger, for what interest it holds:

    Putnam Voyager Fund (PVOYX) is merging into Putnam Growth Opportunities (POGAX) on July 15, 2016. Voyager’s performance was rightly described as “dismal” by Morningstar. Voyager’s manager was replaced in February by Growth Opportunities', after a string of bad bets: in the past six years, he mixed one brilliant year with two dismal ones and three pretty bad ones. He was appointed in late 2008 just before the market blasted off, rewarding all things risky. As soon as that phase passed, Voyager sank in the mud. To their credit, Voyager’s investors stayed with the fund and assets, still north of $3 billion, have only recently begun to slip. The new combined fund’s manager is no Peter Lynch, but he’s earning his keep.

    David
  • msf
    Thanks for the background. It explains why Putnam is giving up on Voyager.

    Years ago, it used to be a well respected, well known fund. For part of the 90s, it was the largest holding in my 401k plan (until my company dumped Putnam for Merrill Lynch).

    Looking over the management history, it seems that Marsh & McLennan (former owners of Putnam) made hash of the fund after that, with rapid management turnover and of course with the 2003 timing scandals. The longevity of the immediately preceding manger (2008-2016) might be explained by Putnam having been bought in 2007. Just a guess.

    FWIW, Putnam VT Voyager (the VA clone of Voyager) is similarly being merged into Putnam VT Growth Opportunities.
  • TedTed
    @MFO Members: Let's see now, here is this turkey's track record, enough said !!!
    Regards,
    Ted
    YTD: 76 Percentile
    1Yr. 90 "
    3Yr. 85 "
    5Yr. 98 "
    10 Yr. 66 "
    15 Yr. 89 "
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    That's a whole lot of gobble!
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