Morgan Stanley said it has launched five new capital-protected products with exposure to sectors such as infrastructure and in commercial property, tapping what it sees as continued demand for these areas while equity markets remain volatile.

Covering a mix of asset classes, the launch is part of a continued trend for investment banks and wealth management firms in rolling out structured products, which typically offer to repay a client’s capital – assuming markets do not fall beyond a certain point – in return for surrendering a potential slice of returns as part of the cost.

Structured products have been sold to investors fearful of losses, although some private banks are wary of them as these products have been criticised for lacking price transparency. There also remains a debate on whether they offer value for money.

The Morgan Stanley strategies will be open for subscription from 1 September 2008. All new products have capital protection at maturity. The products are the following. The Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Projected Growth Plan 1; Morgan Stanley UK Commercial Property Growth Plan 3; Asia (ex- Japan) Protected Growth Plan 6; the FTSE Protected Growth Plan 25, and the FTSE Capital Plus Plan 14. All offer capital protection. The latter product pays a minimum return of 30 per cent at maturity regardless of how the FTSE 100 Index has performed over the 6-year term.

The plans have minimum investments of £3,000 and are open for direct investment.

“Given the current market environment, investors are increasingly looking for lower-risk investments, diversification and capital protection.  We have experienced an unprecedented demand from retail investors for our products and have seen a 85 per cent increase in uptake from our last launch in May,” said Marc Chamberlain, vice president of Morgan Stanley.