AEGON launches retail share class for Inflation Linked Fund

AEGON Asset Management is launching a retail share class for its AEGON Inflation Linked Fund. The AEGON Inflation Fund, was originally launched in July for UK institutional investors, and is now opening to the wider market due to investor demand for such a product.

The fund aims to mitigate investors growing concerns over the effects of inflation to their capital, by investing in a portfolio of directly and indirectly inflation linked investment vehicles. This could include fixed income such as inflation linked bonds, equities, currencies, commodities and cash.

The fund is managed by Stephen Jones from AEGON Asset Management's award winning fixed income team* supported by Scott Jamieson and Kirstie MacGillivray from its multi asset group and Stephen Adams from its UK equity team.

The AEGON Inflation Linked Fund aims to outperform the FTSE Index Linked Gilts over Five Years (Total Return) Index. It will be managed on an active thematic basis.

The fixed income element of the fund will be generated from ideas using sovereign, investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt.

While the equity, commodity, currency and cash positions will draw upon AEGON Asset Management's strategy and economics team, its multi-asset group and its well regarded UK equity team. These positions are likely to represent thematic inflation related investment opportunities, generated from a top down macro-economic perspective.

AEGON Asset Management's property team will also provide input on potential property investment strategies, but the fund will not hold direct property investment due to the illiquid nature of this asset class.

AEGON Asset Management European head of retail sales Steve Kenny says: ‘The Bank of England has only recently highlighted that it expects inflation to remain high well into next year. Our investors have also been expressing similar concerns for some time now, which is why we have opened the fund up to the wider investment market.'