It is the firm’s first fund for the UK wholesale and institutional market. The launch follows the appointment of Philippe Broadhead as head of institutional and wholesale distribution.
The fund will invest in ‘broad range of longer-term alternative assets’ and is designed to provide returns with low correlation to equities and bonds combined with what it says is a relatively high level of income of just under 4% at present.
Assets targeted by the fund will include infrastructure, loans, commodities, forestry and specialist property. The fund will target a significant weighting to assets with returns either directly linked to inflation or indirectly through a linkage to short term interest rates.
Architas’ portfolios have contained a number of these investment types since its formation in 2008, the firm said.
“The attraction of real assets has been increasing at a time when equity yields have fallen and bond prices look vulnerable to potential interest rate rises,” Rock said.
“The traditional negative correlation between equities and bonds has also failed to protect investors during recent market stresses and the inclusion of real assets has increasingly been seen as a way to provide an element of protection within traditional portfolios,” he added.
