Three further M&G funds join Skandia

Two top-performing equity funds and a newly launched, new generation fixed income fund take the total number of M&G funds available via Skandia to 18.

The M&G American, M&G Global Leaders and M&G Optimal Income funds are now available through Skandia’s life, pension and fund supermarket fund ranges. The funds offer retail investors a wealth of diversity and, in the case of M&G’s Global Leaders and American funds, top quartile performance whilst the M&G Optimal Income fund offers a new, innovative fund.

Andrew Watson, M&G Director of Partnerships and Networks, comments: “M&G’s goal is to deliver strong performance across our fund range coupled with developing new, innovative products to satisfy client demand. The addition of these funds is testament to the fact that we continue to achieve this goal. M&G offers retail investors access to three asset classes namely equities, bonds and commercial property via Skandia which is one of our key Life and Pension partners and we are delighted to be able to further expand the range of funds on offer.”

Richard Vincent, head of strategic fund partnerships at Skandia comments: “We’re committed to the development of all our fund ranges and demand from advisers is key in adding new investment options. That we’ve added these three funds from M&G, bringing the total from them to 18, underpins our six year relationship with them and we look forward to adding more of their funds in the future.”

The M&G American Fund, managed by Citywire AAA rated Aled Smith, is a top performing fund in the IMA North America sector achieving a ranking of 2nd out of 70 funds over three years. It has achieved this return at a time when US equities have underperformed relative to other markets such as Europe and Asia. M&G was recently awarded Best North American Group at the Professional Adviser Awards.

The M&G Global Leaders Fund, also managed by Aled Smith, has enjoyed huge success in retail markets, delivering top decile performance over both one and three years. During the three year period, it returned 21.9% versus the sector average return of 13.15%. The fund manager uses a systematic, bottom-up approach to select the best stocks from the full spectrum of worldwide equities across all industries, sectors and global markets.

The M&G Optimal Income Fund is a dynamic, flexible, total return bond fund managed by Richard Woolnough. The fund will always be invested predominantly in bonds and will take full advantage of the greater flexibility available under UCITS III ‘wider powers’ regulations. The new regulations provide access to a wider range of asset classes as well as a variety of more sophisticated investment instruments such as derivatives.