Sanlam UK launches two multi-asset funds in response to trade war woes

The Sanlam Conservative and Defensive funds, ranked as 'risk profile 2 and risk profile 3' respectively, are on course for an October launch subject to regulatory approval, joining the firm's Cautious, Balanced and Growth products. The £20m Balanced and Cautious funds, and the £2m Growth fund, were launched at the end of February and the beginning of March of this year respectively.

Sanlam UK continues expansion with Avidus Scott Lang acquisition

Under the management of CIO Philip Smeaton, the funds will invest in various asset classes directly, including equities, bonds, real estate and fixed income.

Richard Pursglove, head of distribution at Sanlam, said the direct investing approach means "from an OCF perspective, [they are] relatively less expensive compared to other alternative funds".

He added that the funds work on the basis of "idea generation through a collaborative effort between individual portfolios managers running funds in their own right", such as Mike Pinggera, Peter Fourie and Adour Sarkissian.

Pursglove said: "What we have here is an investment approach predicated around a central investment process and is a unitised derivative of our DFM proposition."

The launches come amid "investor demand" for risk-weighted products due to "the numerous geopolitical challenge in the world today, such as the US-China trade wars", Pursglove noted.

Following the firm's acquisition of Thesis earlier this year, the firm's pre-existing multi-asset offerings will eventually merge with the Sanlam funds, he said.

US Absolute Return

It follows July's announcement that Sanlam will launch its US Absolute Return fund - which will be headed up by value specialist Adour Sarkissian - later on in the year. Investment week can exclusively reveal the fund now has regulatory approval and the launch date will be brought forward to the end of September this year.

The Sanlam US Absolute Return fund was also devised in response to investor demand for late-cycle investment solutions.

Pursglove said: "If you think where we are in this cycle, the nature of markets and tendency for value to have been out of favour - which is very much part of Ardour's investment style - we think we are nearer into moving towards a value phase in markets.

"On long side of the balance sheet, exposure to more value style orientated stocks, balanced against short side of the book. I think it is one of the first specific value oriented US absolute return funds available."

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• Topics
• Multi-asset
• Markets
• Sanlam
• richard pursgrove
• us absolute return
• trade war
• multi asset
• fund launches
• US-China relations