Well over half, or 58.6%, of Smithson (SSON) shareholders have opted to take cash rather than roll over into the new open-ended Smithson Equity Fund.

In an update on the liquidation of the £1.5bn global smaller companies investment trust announced in November, Smithson said holders of 58.6%, or over 62.9m, of its shares had chosen to take cash.

With the latest net asset value per share being £15.35, that means Terry Smith’s Fundsmith will lose more than £967m of assets under management.

However, £682m will transfer to the new fund which will continue Smithson’s remit under its manager Simon Barnard.

Fundsmith has seen assets under management decline as its quality growth investment approach has struggled in recent years, but as of 31 December it still looked after £24bn, most of it in the £15.3bn Fundsmith Equity Fund run by Smith.

There was no share price reaction to the news as Smithson shares were suspended on 11 February after 99% of shareholder votes at a meeting on the previous day approved the investment trust’s liquidation. The process of open-ending the closed-end fund is not quite complete with a second general meeting due on Friday.

The restructuring was prompted by the emergence of activist hedge fund Saba Capital with a 16% stake last year. This forced the board and fund manager to recognise that something radical needed to be done to eradicate a stubborn share price discount that had persisted despite the company buying back 39% of its shares over three years.

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