Baring Dynamic Asset allocation fund hits £5bn under management

Baring Asset Management ("Barings"), the international investment firm, today announces that its flagship multi-asset product, the Baring Dynamic Asset Allocation (DAA) Fund has reached over £5bn in assets under management (AUM), since launch in January 2007.

The fund seeks to produce equity-like returns with less than equity risk using a flexible and dynamic approach to multi asset investing which aims to capture returns when available whilst protecting capital during falling markets. It has been successful in achieving this goal, returning 6.6% per annum since inception compared to the FTSE All Share which returned 0.86% per annum over the same period. The volatility of the fund since inception is 7.4% which is less than half the FTSE ALL Share index volatility of 17% over the same period.

Reaching this milestone is the result of the significant interest that this approach has generated since launch from  corporate pension schemes and increasingly, from local authority clients. In the last twelve months to end April 2012, it has won a number of new local authority mandates, totalling over £500m. These include recent mandates from Devon, Dorset and Wiltshire [councils/authorities].

Andrew Benton, Barings' Head of UK and International Institutional Sales said:  "We have long made the case for dynamic multi-asset investing and the benefits this can bring to long term returns, particularly in volatile conditions. The success of the DAA fund demonstrates that these benefits are now widely recognised by pension schemes looking to mitigate volatility whilst also capturing returns when they are available. "

Barings first created multi-asset portfolios in 2002 and since then, recognising the high demand for such products, the firm has launched not only the DAA fund (in 2007) for institutional investors but also the Baring Multi Asset Fund (in 2009), making its multi asset capabilities available to retail investors and defined contribution pension schemes. This was followed by the launch of the Global Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund (in 2010), a product available to US pension funds. More recently it has created regionally focused products, the Baring Dynamic Emerging Markets Fund and the Baring Asia Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund giving investors the potential to capture the returns available from these high growth regions but with less risk than investing in equities alone.