Barings adds over £140m to flagship multi asset fund

Baring Asset Management (Barings), the international investment management firm, has won over £140 million in assets so far this year in its flagship institutional multi asset offering, the Baring Dynamic Asset Allocation (DAA) fund. This brings the total funds under management to over £1.3 billion as at 31 August 2009. The fund launched in January 2007 and now has over 40 clients invested.

New mandates funded over this period include those from KemFine UK Pension Trustees Ltd, the Trustee of The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Staff Pension Scheme and the MGM Pension Scheme.

Richard Graham, Head of UK Institutional Business at Barings, comments: “Since launch, the Baring Dynamic Asset Allocation fund has received a tremendous reception from the market. It is especially pleasing that our strategy is meeting the investment needs of so many pension funds at a time when the economy is in such a fragile state and risk reduction and capital preservation are vitally important.”

The multi asset fund aims to deliver equity-like returns with less risk than holding an equity-only portfolio. The fund is approaching its third anniversary while the multi asset targeted return strategy run by Barings for segregated mandates is close to completing its seventh year. Since inception, the fund has returned 5.59%. Over the same time period, however, the FTSE All Share fell 5.17% and the FTSE All World Equity Index fell 0.77%. Over the longer term, since 31 December 2002, the multi asset strategy has returned 10.5% per annum, beating the Libor +4% target of 8.8% (as at 31 August 2009).

Graham continues, “It is encouraging that the fund’s multi asset targeted return approach is being acknowledged by the market as a key component of pension funds’ investment portfolios. By generating long-term growth that matches equity returns with reduced risk, the Dynamic Asset Allocation fund is able to help trustees meet their objectives.”

Clients invested in the fund include local government and corporate pension schemes and charities. In total, Barings runs over £2 billion in multi asset portfolios.