The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Titan Investment Solutions
Titan Investment Solutions, part of Titan Wealth, has been appointed to manage Tideway UCITS Funds ICAV – newly-renamed as the Titan Hybrid Capital Bond Fund.

The fund, which was incepted in August 2016, has since returned 24.3 per cent to investors and 11.7 per cent over the last 12 months. It invests in high quality global issuers, lower down in the capital structure to achieve enhanced yield. It now has a yield to maturity of 8.8 per cent and an effective duration of 5.2 years, positioning it well to prosper at the back end of the rate hiking cycle. The fund’s distributing share class has provided investors with a distribution yield of 7.6 per cent over the last 12 months (£6.64p per unit) ($7.32 per unit).

The fund will be run by Peter Doherty, head of fixed income and lead fund manager. Doherty, who has over 35 years’ experience in fixed income markets, set up the Tideway UCITS Funds ICAV and has been lead manager on the Titan Hybrid Capital Bond Fund (previously the Sanlam Hybrid Capital Bond Fund) since its inception in 2016.

Doherty will be accompanied by Chris Turdean, investment associate, who has five years’ experience in fixed income and started his career working as portfolio manager assistant on the fund.

“As part of the Titan Investment Solutions team, Peter and Chris will play a key role in building out our in-house fixed income offering, with new and innovative products that meet the needs and requirements of Titan Group’s clients and the broader UK wealth management market,” Paul Hunt, CEO Titan Asset Management, said.
 

Photo left to right: Chris Turdean, Peter Doherty

Quilter Cheviot
The Quilter Investors Cirilium range, which falls within the discretionary fund management business of Quilter Cheviot, has added two new funds across its portfolios.

The firm wants to boost inflation linkage for investors and align the range more specifically with its long-term view, it said in a statement. 

The funds added were the M&G European Strategic Value fund, which was added to the Cirilium Active and Blend portfolios, and the ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Income fund which was added to Cirilium Blend.

The Cirilium Blend portfolio, managed by Ian Jensen-Humphreys, Sacha Chorley and C J Cowan, typically holds one growth fund and one value fund for each region. Following the disposal of a European value ETF in Cirilium Blend, the trio believed that the M&G offering helped balance the portfolio’s existing European growth-tilted holdings.

The M&G European Strategic Value fund aims to provide investors with exposure to companies that are underappreciated, preferring to take a long-term view and wait for the turnaround in investor attention and sentiment, an approach consistent with the Cirilium portfolios. The managers favoured the fund’s simple, repeatable process, which also includes consideration of ESG criteria in its selections.

Meanwhile, the ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Income fund invests in global listed infrastructure companies with a combined focus on reliable income and capital growth. The Cirilium portfolio managers want to find investments that allow investors to grow their wealth in real terms, and Jensen-Humphreys, Chorley and Cowan felt the fund offered strong inflation linkage to support this.

These latest additions come as the trio are close to finalising the fund line-up in the Cirilium Active portfolios after it reviewed all holdings they undertook when they were brought onto the Cirilium Active range late in 2022.

“Coupled with the long-term nature of the M&G European Strategic Value, we believe we have identified funds for our investors that will serve well not only in the current environment, but over the long-term too, allowing us to block out the noise should volatility return,” Jensen-Humphreys said.

CG Asset Management
CG Asset Management (CGAM) has announced that it is intending to launch an Irish-domiciled UCITs fund called the CG Portfolio Plc – UK Index-linked Bond Fund.

CGAM, which was set up in 2001, is an independent boutique investment house committed to protecting clients’ capital by focusing on absolute return and inflation-linked sovereign bonds. Its long-term track record reflects the academic rigour that lies behind its investment approach, the firm said in a statement.

It also has a long pedigree of investing in index-linked bonds with its first purchases of UK linkers through Capital Gearing Trust in 1992. CGAM manages £2.4 billion ($2.91 billion) in index-linked bonds across eight jurisdictions, including £500 million in UK index-linked.

"We’ve been investing in UK index-linked for 30 years. We think that UK index linked now offer a great opportunity and so we’ve decided to launch a dedicated fund. This will be our first new launch in seven years, and it reflects our belief that index-linked bonds are amongst the most attractively priced assets globally,” Chris Clothier, co-CIO and co-manager, said.

The fund is due to launch on 15 November with full details to follow.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has launched the Morgan Stanley Funds (UK) American Resilience Equity Fund, following the launch of the Luxembourg vehicle in 2022.

The American Resilience Equity Fund is managed by the International Equity team, which has over 25 years of experience in managing high quality global equity portfolios. As of 30 September 2023, the team manages AuM of £41.6 billion ($5.076 billion) across its strategies.

American Resilience offers UK investors seeking a high quality US equity fund the opportunity to invest in a concentrated portfolio of 20 to 50 US-listed companies that the team believes have earnings’ resilience.

Using the team’s proven bottom-up high quality investment approach, the fund seeks to invest exclusively in robust, well managed, reasonably priced businesses that can sustain their high returns on operating capital over the long term. The combination of these companies’ earnings visibility, pricing power and recurring revenues should help investors defend against challenging market environments and deliver resilient returns over the long term, the firm added.

“In today's complex economic environment, investors are increasingly looking for funds that demonstrate long-term resilience. With a track record of over 25 years in quality investing, the investment team has proven experience in picking a portfolio of companies which can innovate, grow and adapt to market conditions during challenging times,” Rob Lunn, MSIM’s head of UK & Ireland Intermediary Distribution, added.

American Century Investments
American Century Investments, a $200 billion global asset manager, has expanded its investment line up with the launch of a new strategy for its clients around the world: American Century Global Sustainable Value Equity strategy.

The Global Sustainable Value strategy will apply a best-in-progress approach as it seeks to deliver attractive financial returns while contributing to positive sustainability outcomes across every sector of the economy. The strategy will maintain 45 to 75 securities and will be managed by Global Value Equity chief investment officer Kevin Toney, senior portfolio manager Michael Liss and portfolio manager David Byrns.

“The team will leverage our proprietary Improvement Pathway framework to identify companies that recognise the importance and value of transitioning their business operations to support a more sustainable economy,” Byrns said.

The investment team will work in partnership with American Century’s Sustainable Research team to identify companies for the new strategy.

“Instead of focusing on companies that are already known as sustainability leaders, we are seeking diamonds in the rough – companies that are committed to improving the sustainability of their business,” said Sarah Bratton Hughes, head of sustainable investing.