IRELAND/EUROPE - The central bank of Ireland has authorised US money manager Putnam Investments to offer six new funds, including two value funds, to European retail and institutional investors.
The new funds will target the Austrian, French, German, Spanish and Swiss markets, and are already on offer in the Irish market.
The company currently offers 13 fund products in Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK.

The new funds are based on portfolios available in the US. One of the value funds focuses on US small cap companies priced below their long-term business value.
The other invests globally in large-capitalisation, dividend–paying companies that are undertaking changes, which can reward investors, says the fund manager.

The company will also offer a US core fund, benchmarked against the S&P500 index, as well as a global small cap core equity fund.
Putnam’s health sciences fund seeks to provide capital appreciation by investing in common stocks of companies in health sciences industries, such as medical devices, health-care services and pharmaceuticals.
Apart from the equity funds, the company will also offer a global government bond fund.

The new funds are sub-funds of Putnam World Trust II, a Dublin based UCITS umbrella fund, with assets of US$1.3bn. Currently, the company manages about US$18bn in Europe.