Insight Investment is to close its UK Small Cap Fund on 6 May 2010 after the asset manager decided the fund was no longer viable due to outflows.

The news comes as the fund manager continues to transfer assets out to Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP).

A £100 investment in the Insight UK Small Cap Fund would have lost £22.41 over a three-year period to the end of January, according to figures from Trustnet.

The fund is also in negative territory over ten years. Over this longer period, it would have lost £4.69.

In August 2009, Lloyds Banking Group disposed of Insight, having inherited as part of the takeover of HBOS. It raised £235 million in the process.

Sarah Aiken, director of Insight Investment confirmed that, with the sale of Insight, Lloyds Banking Group had decided to transfer the management of certain equities mandates to SWIP.

She said, ‘Insight has been informed by the principal investors in the above fund of their intention to redeem their holdings, and after considering the resulting size of the fund, we have concluded that it is no longer economically viable to keep this fund open. Consequently, we have obtained the consent of the Financial Services Authority to close this fund.

‘The process of closing the Fund comprises the liquidation of the assets of the fund and payment of proceeds to shareholders. Insight will pay in full the costs associated with the closure, except for audit costs, which will partly be met by the Fund’s provisions for the cost of an annual audit as at the closure date.'