Co-managed by Alban Lhonneur and Marcus Phayre-Mudge, the Ucits-compliant vehicle uses an enhanced long strategy to invest in global real estate securities markets.
The fund is constructed to maintain the same regional exposure as the benchmark, but will use different investment processes to achieve alpha in Europe (15% of the index), North America (50%) and Australia (7%), and track the benchmark in Asia ex-Australia (28%).
F&C intends to capitalise on the alpha generation track record of its European-focused Real Estate Securities Fund. In common with that fund, the new launch also has the flexibility to use short positions in individual stocks and indices to actively manage volatility and risk, through a net exposure range of 60%-140%.
The other funds in the property range are the long-only TR Property Investment Trust, the Gurnsey-domiciled Property Growth & Income Fund and the market neutral absolute return Real Estate Equity Long Short Fund.
Phayre-Mudge said: “Historically, global real estate securities have reacted well to improving macro events, offering an attractive alternative to fixed income with an average dividend yield of 3.7%. It is anticipated that global real estate securities could deliver a 7% earnings growth for the next year based on rental growth coming through.”
