Which absolute return funds are challenging GARS for market share?

As the latest figures from the IMA show Absolute Return funds have seen their highest retail sales for over four years, Standard Life Investments' phenomenally successful GARS fund is starting to face more competition from peers.

A number of fund buyers have been looking to diversify their absolute return holdings into other products recently, after GARS swelled to £20bn. Henderson’s multi-manager team prefers to invest in the Morgan Stanley Diversified Alpha Plus fund, which they said is less complex than GARS, and has produced strong performance with low correlation to markets. Other investors, such as Charles Hepworth at GAM, have sold down the fund on concerns over its increasing asset base. Hepworth (pictured) swapped GARS for the Odey Odyssey fund, claiming “the flexibility and nimbleness in that spac...