Aberdeen Standard Investments is continuing its mooted push into passive products with the launch of a platform that allows investors to track a broad spectrum of hedge fund benchmarks.
Using the platform, ASI plans to launch products that track data firm Hedge Fund Research’s (HFR) flagship HFRI 500, a fund weighted index comprised of 500 hedge funds across a broad range of strategies.
ASI is aiming to raise $500m by May 2021 and said the platform will have an investment capacity in excess of $50bn.
The platform will also allow access to HFR’s index family which includes about 30 underlying hedge fund strategy, sub-strategy and thematic indices, including one investing solely in hedge funds run by women.
Further evidence of SLA chief executive’s commitment to passive
It comes after Standard Life Aberdeen chief executive Stephen Bird (pictured) said the fund house was undergoing a shift towards offering more passive products. He told This Is Money earlier this month the asset manager plans to launch ETFs, which he called “robot” funds, in 2021.
The group also unveiled a range of sustainable index funds on 12 November aimed at pension funds and other institutional investors. The funds each track customised sustainable equity indices created by MSCI for ASI.
‘Genuinely innovative’ products
ASI global head of alternative investment strategies Russell Barlow said the platform enabled it to launch “genuinely innovative benchmark tracking products”.
“Before now products that attempted to track hedge fund benchmarks were both narrow in scope and the implementation approach resulted in investment outcomes that deviated from the return of the hedge fund industry,” he added.
“The funds available on the ASI index tracking platform are able to address these issues by physically owning each underlying fund benchmark constituents at the index weights, helping overcome the historical impediments.”
HFR founder and chairman Joseph Nicholas said: “We are pleased to support the launch of this landmark advancement for the hedge fund industry. For the first time investors can access HFRI Benchmarks through a family of index trackers.”
