UBS Global Asset Management has let go its well-respected head of wholesale distribution, and has shut the fund it launched three years ago in global listed infrastructure, an asset class it now views as stagnant.

After nine years at UBS GAM, David Rothery, an executive director, was made redundant last week along with two members of his team in Sydney and Melbourne.

A UBS GAM spokesperson said the distribution effort was being restructured to focus on large platforms and national dealer groups, given many of the independent advisers and platforms in which Rothery and his colleagues specialised were being forced out of the market.

Rothery said he understood the need for the restructure in a time of falling revenues, and had been "overwhelmed" by calls of support from clients.

Meanwhile, the manager has shut the Global Infrastructure Securities Fund it launched in 2006. It is understood the portfolio manager, Perry Lucas, has been let go but this could not be confirmed at presstime.

The spokesperson said the listed infrastructure market had not expanded sufficiently, and that its correlation with global equities was viewed as too high.