Matthew Newham
Standard Life Investments, the global asset manager, announced yesterday that multi-manager Alpha Fund Managers has become the first Australian investor in the Standard Life Investments Absolute Return Global Bond Strategies Trust (ARGBS).
Matthew Newham, Investment Director Wholesale Business, Standard Life Investments, said: “We are delighted with Alpha Fund Managers’ allocation to ARGBS. This recognises the differentiation that an unconstrained fixed income fund with a focus on absolute returns can provide for investors seeking diversification and predictable returns.
The ARGBS fund aims to return cash* of 3% per annum over rolling three-year periods, with as little volatility as possible. It has the most compelling macro investment opportunities to diversify returns and sources of returns.”
Rod Bristow, Managing Director of Infocus Wealth Management, the parent company of Alpha Fund Managers, said: “We are attracted to ARGBS because of its strong diversification benefits and consistent returns over time. We believe our clients will benefit from the fund’s stable returns and low correlation with traditional bond and equity indices.”
ARGBS is a multi-asset strategy established in March 2011 in the UK and the Australian Trust has been in operation since June 2014. Since ARGBS launched over four years ago, bond markets have experienced large swings in the level of volatility; the ‘taper tantrum’ of 2013 and the aggressive bond market sell-off which began in late April 2015 being two high profile examples. However, despite these events, the fund has proven resilient, with an annualised return of 4.95%^, net of fees to 31 July 2015.
Standard Life Investments’ renowned multi-asset fund, the Global Absolute Return Strategies Trust (GARS), has been offered to Australian institutional investors since 2009, and wholesale investors since 2014.
*Cash is defined as the Bloomberg AusBond Bank Bill Index
^ For information purposes, we show the historical performance of the underlying master fund, the SICAV Absolute Return Global Bond Strategies Fund [in GBP share class converted from Sterling to Australian Dollar from inception (30 March 2011) to 18 October 2012; then Australian Dollar Share class from 18 October 2012 to 2 June 2014].