Standard Life Investments has launched its Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund to retail investors, offering access through a unit trust to the same advanced investment techniques alrea
Standard Life Investments has launched its Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund to retail investors, offering access through a unit trust to the same advanced investment techniques already available to institutional investors.
The Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund seeks to provide investors with consistent, positive investment returns over the medium to long term in a variety of market conditions. The benchmark for the fund is UK six-month sterling Libor, which the fund aims to outperform by 5 per cent per annum gross of fees over a rolling three-year period.
The fund aims to exploit inefficiencies and maximise risk-adjusted returns in markets across the globe. It invests in a combination of traditional investments including equities, bonds and foreign exchange and employs advanced techniques such as relative value, duration, credit spreads, inflation and volatility strategies.
‘This exciting new addition to our mutual fund range will be managed by our award-winning multi-asset investing team and will enable us to build upon the successful performance already generated by our institutional Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund,’ says Jacqueline Kerr, head of mutual fund investments at Standard Life Investments.
Since its launch in June 2006, the institutional fund has delivered a gross annualised return of 9.8 per cent as of May 6 amid exceptional market volatility and has enjoyed considerable asset growth
‘This is an exciting development for Standard Life Investments’ retail offering and demonstrates our commitment to delivering exceptional investment solutions to that market,’ Kerr says.
‘We expect the fund to prove particularly attractive to longer-term investors, who wish to invest in a fund that aims to provide positive investment returns in a variety of market conditions. It will also be of interest to those seeking to invest in an absolute return strategy while benefiting from daily pricing and liquidity, transparency, low minimum investment and competitive fees.
‘Investors will reap the benefits of the robust and actively-managed risk controls we have in place and the fact that it is based on our proven global investment philosophy and process. This fund draws on our core strengths in stock picking expertise, dynamic asset allocation, derivatives management and execution, risk management and quantitative discipline, and is backed by our strong performance record.’
Standard Life Investments intends to make the unit trust available on a wide variety of fund platforms, initially including Standard Life’s Wrap and Fundzone platforms. An insured version of the product will be launched initially exclusively through Standard Life.
