Skandia Investment Group (SIG) announces the possible launch of at least two retail funds to meet demand from investors in today’s market.
Initial plans could see Skandia UK Index and Skandia Gilt funds launch to the UK market with the possibility of further launches as investor demand grows. Providing these funds will give retail investors access to some of Skandia’s existing individual mandates for the first time.
Skandia’s 23 UK MultiManager funds are constructed from a much wider number of mandates and other retail funds. The mandates each have specific aims and are designed to meet specific needs within the retail MultiManager fund of which they form a part.
The current market conditions have re-based investors’ demand for the types of product they want to buy and Skandia has noticed demand for some of the funds it currently only uses to construct its existing retail funds. If these launches go ahead the two funds will be available from Skandia’s UK platform business, Selestia Investment Solutions.
Skandia UK Index is managed by Barclays Global Investors (BGI) who have run the fund since 2004. Panayotis Ferendinos at BlackRock has been running the Skandia Gilt fund since 2002.
“Our UK MultiManager funds are built from a selection of over 100 underlying mandates and retail funds,” says Rob Williams, business development director at Skandia Investment Group. “Each one we use performs a specific role in the fund it’s a part of and we’re having a good look through those now to see if any of the mandates should be considered for the retail market.
“At the moment the mandates we have, which are run by some of the best known fund managers, are not available for individual investment outside the Skandia funds they form part of. In the current market though, we’re noticing demand from advisers and investors for tracker funds to form a bigger element of their portfolios and for that reason, we’re considering launching our Gilt, and UK Index funds for retail investment.”
D.C.