Morley Fund Management, one of the UK’s largest active fund managers, via Aviva Fund Services has launched the Aviva Funds Absolute Tactical Asset Allocation Fund - a global tactical asset allocation fund that is unitised in structure with daily pricing.
Morley Fund Management, one of the UK’s largest active fund managers, via Aviva Fund Services has launched the Aviva Funds Absolute Tactical Asset Allocation Fund - a global tactical asset allocation fund that is unitised in structure with daily pricing. This is believed to be the first of its kind to be UCITs III compliant.
The fund manager seeks to add an additional 15% per annum above one month LIBOR to the entire portfolio. It aims to provide attractive absolute returns to institutional and pension funds by taking active positions in bonds, currency and equities using derivatives to derive additional alpha.
Morley’s head of strategy Adrian Jarvis said that pension schemes are grappling with the issue of how to fund their deficits.
"While LDI might help pension fund trustees sleep at night, in a low-return environment, most schemes can't afford to go down that route exclusively. They have to work their growth assets harder but in the rush to move from balanced mandates to specialist they've lost an important source of alpha in global tactical asset allocation (GTAA)," he said.
Head of balanced funds Steve Cleal said recent trends in the industry have enabled Morley to offer a broader range of solutions.
"We believe the increasing liquidity in global derivatives markets and the advent of UCITs III has given us greater scope to use derivatives in more imaginative ways and design a fund that will allow even small pension schemes to access this lost source of alpha," he said.
The fund is managed by Steve Cleal and Adrian Jarvis, who are supported by Morley’s 20 strong strategy and balanced funds teams. The teams use a combination of proprietary quant models and qualitative analysis to produce the investment forecasts which drive their asset allocation decisions.
Morley already applies global tactical asset allocation overlays to more than Ł80 billion of funds.
In 2005, the team was appointed to manage a segregated GTAA mandate for Go Ahead Pensions Scheme with the aim of providing a 1% return on the scheme’s total assets.
Over the last seven years, Morley’s strategy team has outperformed its target return through asset allocation, with value added in each year.
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For further information please contact:
Beth Saint
Corporate Communications
Morley Fund Management
020 7809 8125
Notes to editors:
Morley Fund Management
- Morley Fund Management Limited is the UK-based asset management business of Aviva plc. Firms within the Morley group of companies manage Ł156bn from offices around the world as at 28 February 2006.
- Morley manages both institutional and retail funds under the Morley brand. It also acts as investment manager for a range of retail investment funds, marketed in the UK under the Norwich Union brand, and international funds marketed under the Aviva Funds brand.
Awards
- Property Fund Manager of the Year, Property Week Awards 2006
- SRI Provider of the Year, Global Pensions 2006
- Central European Property Awards 2005 - Outstanding Company of the Year & Investor of the Year
- UK Pensions Awards 2005 – Property Manager of the Year
- Property Week Awards 2004 – Best Property Fund Manager
- Pensions Management Provider Awards 2003 – Best Property Fund Manager
- Fund Manager of the Year - Pensions Week Awards 2002
- Specialist Manager of the Year - UK Pensions Awards 2002
Further information about Morley Fund Management can be found at www.morleyfm.com