Symphony International (SIHL ), the badly-performing Asia private equity fund that provoked the anger of Asset Value Investors two years ago, has called it a day, announcing it will undergo an ‘orderly realisation’ of its £332m assets.

The board of the British Virgin Isles domiciled investment company, which the manager of AVI Global (AGT ) sought to replace in 2021 alleging conflicts of interest and poor stewardship, said it had undertaken a strategic review and concluded the move to sell its investments was ‘in the best interest of shareholders’.

As a result of the decision the company’s investment manager, Symphony Asia Holdings, will no longer have a floor of $6m (£4.9m) on its compensation, meaning its annual fee will drop as the fund winds down.

Nevertheless, the board said it was ‘confident that its management team, which are its largest shareholders, remain duly incentivised to devote sufficient time to execute the updated strategy and maximise shareholder returns during the realisation process’.

Founded in 2007, Symphony has struggled to attract investors with its shares trading at around half their asset value in recent years. The decision to wind up follows a second quarter in which the portfolio slid 11.7%.

Although established to invest in sectors such as hotels, healthcare and lifestyle that were set to benefit from Asia Pacific’s growing middle class, the past year has net asset value (NAV) drop 25.6%, according to Numis Securities data, with underlying returns flat over five years. That left shareholders down nearly 16% with their stakes trading on a 41% discount to NAV.  

In their campaign, AVI highlighted how two of the board directors had served for over 13 years, in breach of the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) guidelines. One of the other directors worked for a company chaired by Anil Thadani, with the final member the son of chairman emeritus’ Pierangelo Bottinelli, who previously sat on the board for 14 years.

AVI, which held 3.1% of AVI Global in Symphony at 31 March, declined to comment.

Shares in the dollar-denominated fund have risen nearly 18% in the past month, with most of the gain coming before the announcement on Monday. Today the shares stand at 46 cents.