A survey conducted by Schleus Marktforschung on behalf of Hamburg based alternative asset manager Aquila Capital has revealed a stark divide between German institutional investors who are already investing in alternatives as an asset class and those that are not.

Seventy four per cent of respondents who do not already hold alternative investments in their portfolios intend to stay away from the asset class, but 70 per cent of investors who already hold alternative investments are planning additional acquisitions within the year.
 
According to the survey, 66 per cent of institutional investors who are investing in absolute return funds use consultants to help them place their capital.
 
Fifty nine per cent of German institutional investors confirmed that they consider Ucits compliance as an important criterion for allocating capital to absolute return funds. Sixty three per cent of respondents said that lack of transparency and limited liquidity are reasons why they decide against alternative investments, two issues which Ucits was explicitly created to address.
 
Roman Rosslenbroich, Aquila Capital chief executive, says: “The survey confirms a trend that Aquila Capital has pioneered from the beginning: the growing investor appetite for absolute return strategies, structured in a liquid and regulated fund format. Catering to this demand, we launched the AC Statistical Value Market Neutral fund in early 2008 as one of the first Ucits III absolute return funds. Just like a proof-of-concept, SVMN has seen significant growth and is now over EUR500m in size - I am certain that a portion of this success can be credited to its highly liquid and transparent structure.”