BGI unveils long-short hedge fund

Barclays Global Investors(BGI) has kicked-off an absolute return fund - the Barclays Global Markets Fund - after identifying demand from financial planners for an ‘all weather’ product.

The fund, which will be accessible to advisers via master funds and wraps and benchmarked to the domestic cash rate, is a global long/short offering investing in equities, bonds and currency.

“There is strong demand from financial planners for a product that is designed to deliver positive returns no matter which direction the equity or bond markets are heading,” BGI adviser services director Michael Ohlsson says.

“The fund provides the opportunity for planners to invest a portion of their clients’ assets in an investment strategy that aims to deliver positive performance over time irrespective of whether investment markets are in a bear phase.”

The global markets fund will aim to offer investors a 7 per cent return net of fees above the Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate target over a three year period - with a risk exposure of 8 per cent over the same period.

The fund’s underlying global long/short strategy has been available to the group’s institutional clients locally for two years.

“Barclays moved in this direction two years ago in Australia as we saw that long/short strategies were much more powerful than traditional long-only strategies. Investment theory suggests, and our research has confirmed, that this is a much more efficient way to allocate assets and achieve superior investment performance from an active investment strategy,” Ohlsson says.