Edinburgh, Scotland-based asset manager Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) is launching a fund of alternative Ucits funds for institutional investors, offering a passive route to exposure to a diverse range of hedge fund strategies.
The ASI HFRI-I Liquid Alternative Ucits Strategy is being backed with $150 mn of institutional investor money and will invest in more than 140 Ucits funds, mirroring the constituents and weightings of the HFRI-I Liquid Alternative Ucits Index, which has assets of more than $110 bn.
The new fund offers diversification across macro, relative value, event-driven and equity-hedged strategies.
As part of the rationale behind the move, ASI cites a EuroHedge report that institutional investors make up 59 percent of the $3.6 tn hedge fund industry, but so far have not had much opportunity to access the asset class through passive investments – despite the flows seen to equity and fixed-income markets.
Russell Barlow, global head of alternative investment strategies at ASI, says in a statement: ‘The risk-return features of hedge fund strategies appeal to institutional investors seeking to diversify portfolios and meet specific financial objectives. Although we have seen a proliferation of passive products across traditional asset classes, such as equities and bonds, to date this hasn’t been a viable option for those allocating to alternatives.
‘The rationale for offering this capability is clear: clients are looking for a broad array of access routes to hedge funds and passive is now one of a number of options.’
