Henderson, the UK-listed investment management firm, has announced proposed changes to its fund management responsibilities and plans for the Gartmore retail fund range, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. Henderson expects the acquisition of Gartmore Group to complete on 4 April 2011,

Under the proposed changes Henderson will drop 14 of Gartmore’s funds, merging them into Henderson funds on 25 April 2011. On this date the management of 13 of these funds will be taken over by the Henderson manager responsible for the fund into which the Gartmore fund is planned to merge.

The Gartmore SICAV China Opportunities fund will retain its Gartmore manager, Charlie Awdry, until the summer of this year.

The funds to be merged are: Gartmore Corporate Bond, Gartmore Fixed Interest, Gartmore SICAV European Corporate Bond, Gartmore SICAV Asia Pacific, Gartmore Pacific Opportunities, Gartmore Japan Opportunities, Gartmore UK Alpha, Gartmore UK Growth, Gartmore MultiManager Active, Gartmore MultiManager Balanced, Gartmore MultiManager Cautious, Gartmore UK Equity Income, Gartmore High Yield Corporate Bond, Gartmore SICAV China Opportunities.

“Where changes do occur, these primarily reflect areas in which Henderson already has fund management capability and therefore believes it sensible to merge the funds into its existing range,” said the firm in a statement.

It was said in January, when the acquisition was announced, that the deal would create a firm with combined assets under management of £78 billion (around $125.15 billion).