Bolton's China Special Situations registered as closed-ended

Fidelity has registered a China Special Situations company at Companies House in the clearest indication yet Anthony Bolton's new fund will be an investment trust.

The asset manager registered the new company at Companies House on 22 January, with the fund slated for launch in March.

Final details of the fund are still being hammered out with the regulators but an investment trust is the most likely structure.

Bolton is keen for strong supporters of his Special Situations fund throughout its 28 history to have the chance to access the new fund. IFAs have been notably large backers and the investment trust structure is one which the retail market is known to be comfortable with, both here and in Hong Kong.

Bolton is also no stranger to running investment trusts as he managed the Fidelity Special Values investment trust, which launched in 1994, alongside his open-ended Special Situations fund. He also ran the European Values trust from 1991-2001.

The closed-ended structure means Bolton will not be forced to invest all the inflows into his fund straight away and he will also be able to use gearing and other powers if appropriate.

The structure woud allow Bolton to control the amount of money taken at any one time by limiting the size of the share issues. This would be a huge advantage given the massive amount of interest the fund is expected to generate at launch. Fidelity would then be able to make further issues to raise new capital at an appropriate time.

Bolton has committed to at least two years running Fidelity's new China fund. He will relocate to Hong Kong in the early part of this year in preparation for an expected end of March launch.

"I firmly believe that China is the investment opportunity of the next decade. I have been a regular visitor to China since 2004, when I started meeting and investing in Chinese companies," Bolton says.

"After spending the last few months in Asia, I have become increasingly excited by the prospect of managing a portfolio investing in the tremendous growth potential of China."

The full details of Bolton's new fund will be given to advisers on 8 February along with the marketing literature.

It will be run using Bolton's highly successful contrarian approach to investment.