How alternatives dominated investment trust fundraising in 2014

Alternative assets dominated investment trust fundraising in 2014, Winterflood figures show, as investors looked outside the mainstream for returns.

Alternatives as a whole made up more than 60% of fundraising in the closed-ended market over 2014, with infrastructure and commercial property featuring among the top three asset classes for the year in terms of total share issuance. Investors have been attracted by the strong performance of some alternative assets recently - commercial property returned 17.8% in 2014, while the AIC's infrastructure sector returned an average of 14.6% over the same period, according to FE data. Winterflood Securities' head of investment research Simon Elliott said he is not surprised by the trend, giv...