The value-focused firm cited shrinking assets and anticipated client redemptions as the trigger for its closure
Sprucegrove Investment Management Ltd., a Toronto-based institutional equity manager that oversaw billions of dollars for pension funds and endowments, is shutting down after more than 30 years in operation.
The firm informed investors of its decision in a note sent Thursday, according to Bloomberg News, which reported that it had seen the correspondence. Sprucegrove attributed its closure to a prolonged stretch of underperformance tied to its value-investing style and to a resulting decline in assets under management that had eroded the firm’s ability to operate at scale.
“The investment environment in recent years has been challenging for our style,” Sprucegrove said in the note to clients. “The resulting decline in assets under management, together with further anticipated client redemptions, has brought us to a point where we no longer believe the firm can maintain the scale necessary to operate the business over the longer term.”
Founded in 1993, Sprucegrove built its business managing international equities for institutional investors across Canada and beyond. The employee-owned firm’s strategy centred on buying shares of high-quality companies and holding them over long periods – a classic value-investing approach that fell out of favour during an extended period of growth-stock dominance.
The closure also has implications for Vanguard’s institutional fund investors. Sprucegrove had already notified Vanguard Group of its decision to end its role as one of the investment advisers on the Vanguard International Value Fund, where it had been responsible for approximately one-third of the fund’s assets, according to United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulatory filings.
“This was not a decision we reached lightly,” Sprucegrove said. “We considered a number of alternatives before concluding that an orderly wind-down is the most responsible course for our clients, our employees, and the firm.”
The firm managed approximately $11.5 billion at the end of 2025, according to the SEC. That figure represented a roughly 25 per cent drop from the prior year, Bloomberg reported.
The firm did not respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment.
