What was the thinking behind using hedge fund strategies in an absolute return vehicle?
“It sits in the absolute return sector. We make the point that it is an equity fund. The bull market started in 2003 – SVM Saltire was launched in October 2002 – but we caught that market rally right the way through to the middle of 2007 when it ended to capture 80 per cent of the upside in the fund. In the period since then we have been able to use the tools that we have in the fund to be able to protect capital, in fact it has carried on growing. We have got a whole market cycle of the bull market initially and now a bear market. We have been able to show we can perform in both conditions and over the whole cycle we can achieve a better than equity return. “A lot of IFAs that we have met that had a lot of interest in the new fund quite like the idea of us having an equity fund that should eventually be able to participate in a market rally and sustained recovery but which meanwhile will leave them a bit less exposed in the timing of that. Maybe we can time that better and protect cap
