Santander Asset Management launches Emerging Markets Fund

Santander Asset Management UK has expanded its product range with the launch of a new Emerging Markets Fund. This new fund will form part of a new Global Equity Growth Portfolio, available exclusively to Abbey’s Premium Investments clients.

The launch comes at the end of a strong first year that has seen a new investment team recruited, investment processes and front office systems put in place and a turnaround in fund performance.

Emerging Markets Fund

The new fund invests in emerging markets or companies from developed countries where the majority of the earnings come from emerging markets. It is an actively managed fund of funds that will use specialised, regional fund managers as well as global emerging managers and will aim to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

Commenting on the fund, John Bearman, Chief Investment Officer for Santander Asset Management UK said: “Emerging markets are all very different in terms of their geographical, political and economic situations, which is why it is important to invest in people ‘on the ground’ who fully understand each market.

“The countries of greatest interest to us are South Korea, Taiwan, India, China and Brazil, with the drivers for growth in these markets being domestic investment, consumption, infrastructure and commodities. Valuations for these markets are good when compared to developed countries and will continue to be strong going forward.”

“The fund structure will be able to employ a hybrid approach across fund of funds, manager of managers and other investment vehicles. While a manager of managers approach remains core to our ongoing proposition, this flexibility will allow us to be more dynamic and diversified in order to generate higher returns.”

Global Equity Growth Portfolio

The introduction of the new emerging markets asset class allows Santander Asset Management UK to launch the Global Equity Growth Portfolio at the same time. The objective of the Portfolio is to achieve long-term growth through investment in a broadly diversified portfolio of predominantly global equities including emerging markets. This is the most adventurous of the current portfolios available to Abbey’s Premium Investments clients who are seeking a higher risk/return investment solution.

The recent launches round off a strong year for Santander Asset Management UK, which took over the management of the Abbey National Asset Managers, Abbey National Unit Trust Managers and Inscape Investments on 1 January. These have since renamed to reflect them now being managed by Santander Asset Management.

These changes reinforce Santander Asset Management UK’s commitment to support the reinvigorated Abbey’s investment business.

Ignacio Izquierdo, Chief Executive Officer of Santander Asset Management UK said: “I am very excited about the changes we have made this year since launching the business in the UK. We have robust processes in place and in July in-sourced the management of both the UK Equity Income and UK Growth Unit Trusts.

“We have an excellent team in place and, on 1 January 2008, Keith Speck will join as Head of Multi-Manager, bringing significant experience to help strengthen our multi manager proposition even further. Santander Asset Management UK will start 2008 in a strong position to achieve its goal of becoming a market-leading asset management business.”