Standard Life Investments has announced that its Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund, launched in June 2006, has passed the milestone of GBP500m in assets under management, thanks to an
Standard Life Investments has announced that its Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund, launched in June 2006, has passed the milestone of GBP500m in assets under management, thanks to an inflow of more than GBP255m in new investment in the first seven months of 2008.
Investors in the fund include the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Superannuation Scheme, the Dollond & Aitchison Pension & Life Assurance Scheme and the Electrocomponents Group Pension Scheme.
Since its launch, the Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund has delivered an annualised return of 7.3 per cent up to the end of July, with very low levels of volatility despite the past year’s turmoil throughout global markets, SLI says.
The fund seeks to provide investors with consistent, positive investment returns over the medium to long term in a variety of market conditions. It aims to outperform its benchmark, UK six-month sterling Libor, by 5 per cent per annum gross of fees over a rolling three-year period.
The fund seeks to exploit inefficiencies across markets, investing in a combination of traditional investments such as equities, bonds and foreign exchange as well as using advanced techniques including relative value, duration, credit spreads, inflation and volatility strategies.
In May this year SLI opened the fund to retail investors in the UK, since when it has attracted more than GBP40m in retail assets. At the end of July it had total assets of more than GBP609m.
‘Clients have clearly found the attractive performance and low volatility of our Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund a reassuring choice during a period of high market volatility and uncertainty in many asset classes,’ says Louise Kay, head of UK institutional business development at Standard Life Investments.
‘The key to its success has been a diverse array of traditional and advanced market strategies expertly blended by our multi-asset investing team. As well as traditional assets like equities and bonds, they have scoured global markets for diversifying opportunities, deploying credit protection and volatility strategies that paid off when credit markets hit the rocks in the autumn of 2007 and fears of a global slowdown shook equity markets.
‘The success of the fund, coupled with an increased fund choice for liability driven investment investors, means we continue to move towards our goal of being the multi-asset provider of choice for the UK investment community.’
