The fund will be managed by Schroders’ commodities fund managers James Luke and Mark Lacey. Luke has over 10 years of investment experience and is a precious metals specialist. Lacey has over 20 years of experience as a fund manager specialising in commodities.
An unconstrained, bottom up investment strategy will be employed, aiming to tap into both the stock picking skill of the managers and the wider research capability of the Schroders commodities team.
The UCITS compliant offering will not be purely based on gold, with other precious metal stocks such as silver and platinum also targeted when opportunities present themselves.
Luke and Lacey said we are now at an important inflection point for gold. Its appeal as an investment asset is increasing following a period of extreme negative sentiment towards both the metal and the gold producers, they noted.
The pair added that they expect physical gold prices to continue recovering in the coming years, driven primarily by continued negative real interest rates and increased global macro risks, as demonstrated very recently with Brexit.
Global head of distribution John Troiano said: “We have a strong commodities capability at Schroders, which we are continuing to grow. Gold companies are near 10 and even 15 year lows and while current sentiment remains negative, we are beginning to see signs that the fundamentals are turning positive for these companies. Schroder ISF Global Gold will allow investors to participate in any turnaround in gold equities.”
