Merrant signs up SLI for Chinese and Indian equities expertise

Standard Life Investments, the global fund manager, has announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Merrant, the Swedish multi-manager company.

Merrant is a subsidiary of Alicia Capital Management, an independent Swedish capital management firm with extensive experience and expertise within global asset management.

The agreement will see SLI’s China Equity Fund (SICAV) forming part of five Merrant multimanager funds - Kina, BRIC, Asien, Emerging Markets and Global. SLI’s India Equity Fund (SICAV) will also form part of Merrant’s BRIC multi-manager fund.

Merrant Kina is a multi-manager fund investing in the Chinese region. The fund invests in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Merrant BRIC is a multi-manager fund investing in Brazil, Russia, India and China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. Merrant Asien is a multimanager fund investing in Asia excluding Japan. Merrant Emerging Markets is a multi-manager fund investing in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa. Merrant Global is a multimanager fund investing in markets around the world.

Earlier this month SLI announced the official launch of an India Equity SICAV Fund aimed at institutional and retail investors in Continental Europe. The objective of the fund is to generate long term capital appreciation through a portfolio of instruments predominately in equity and equity-linked instruments of companies listed on the major stock exchanges of India.

SLI’s China Equity Fund (SICAV) has returned 129.8% over 12 months and 257.5% since its launch in February 2005.

Åsa Norrie, Investment Director – Denmark, Finland, Norway & Sweden, Standard Life Investments, said: “As part of Alicia Capital Management, Merrant has a reputation for working with internationally renowned experts across different regions around the world. Given the stiff competition among Emerging Market Equity providers, I’m delighted that Merrant have chosen to utilise our Chinese and Indian Equity expertise within their range of multi-manager funds. We share their commitment to providing excellent investment performance to clients and I’m looking forward to working with Merrant to achieve this.

“Our agreement with Merrant forms another important part of SLI’s strategy in Sweden and indeed the Nordic region at large. We are quickly building a reputation outside of the UK for providing our clients and partners with truly unique solutions, not just in traditional asset classes and sectors but also in emerging markets such as China and India.”