Investec launches Worldwide Flexible Fund
Responding to South African investors’ need for an unconstrained investment offering, Investec Asset Management today announced the launch of the Investec Worldwide Flexible Fund. This multi-asset fund will aim to find the best investment opportunities regardless of geography or asset class by implementing a completely flexible investment strategy.
The fund can be seen as an extension of the successful Investec Balanced strategy, which harnesses the investment firm’s best ideas from multiple local and global strategies. However, the unconstrained geographic element gives this worldwide flexible fund access to a greater opportunity set than that available to Regulation 28-limited balanced funds. The fund therefore has the potential to deliver a higher return at similar risk to typical balanced funds.
In order to achieve this, the fund will be invested across local and offshore equities, bonds, money market instruments and property assets, with complete flexibility across these asset classes and the geographies in which they are offered. Therefore, at any given time, the fund could have all its holdings in offshore, or everything in local assets. Importantly, the fund, which is classified by the Association of Savings South Africa (ASISA) as a Worldwide – Multi-Asset – Flexible fund, is not governed by Regulation 28, and aims to be an optimal solution for discretionary savers.
“South Africans have increasingly looked to invest offshore, but find themselves hamstrung by the currency volatility and frustrated by regulatory offshore allocation limits. We believe this solution is well positioned to give investors access to an unconstrained multi-asset portfolio where investment experts make the difficult allocation calls, with the added benefit of being unrestricted by the geographic limits imposed by prudential regulations,” said Sangeeth Sewnath, Deputy MD of Investec Asset Management.
The fund will be managed by Rhynhardt Roodt and Rüdiger Naumann, portfolio managers within the Investec Asset Management SA equity and multi-asset team. They are supported by a globally integrated investment research team spanning equities, fixed income and alternative assets.
“With our emerging market heritage and established worldwide expertise, we believe we are in the ideal position to offer an unconstrained global complement to the South African investment market. Our investment teams work together seamlessly across regions and so we are able to leverage the best investment ideas, coupled with local experience,” said Roodt.
