Fidelity has launched two custom-designed OEIC funds exclusively available to clients of Flying Colours Advice Limited – a sister company to FCIM. These are the Fidelity ProsperityBuild Fund and Fidelity ProsperityShield Fund.

FCIM appointed Fidelity to create two bespoke funds, specifically designed to meet the unique investment needs and objectives of their clients, targeting growth and capital preservation strategies.

Fidelity ProsperityBuild Fund harnesses Fidelity’s global equity research to build a portfolio of high-conviction stocks. The fund translates fundamental insights into consistent equity exposure, offering investors a transparent and adaptable way of accessing Fidelity’s global fundamental research platform.

Fidelity ProsperityShield Fund is built on a process that seeks to achieve capital preservation and low volatility, while maintaining the potential for upside. It employs a dual-component strategy with offensive and defensive sleeves – an approach which uses top-down asset allocation and tactical flexibility. This disciplined and adaptive framework positions the portfolio to deliver a consistent return premium over cash, with better risk-adjusted returns than traditional global aggregate bonds.

“We are delighted to be working with FCIM on these customised products and are excited about growing our partnership in the future,” Dennis Pellerito, head of wholesale, UK at Fidelity International, said. “This collaboration shows how our extensive research expertise and investment capabilities allow us to create bespoke and innovative solutions, enabling our partners to add and deliver exceptional value to their clients in a competitive marketplace."

“By aligning with a globally-respected institution, we’re unlocking access to high-quality investment strategies and research capabilities that would otherwise be out of reach for individual clients,” Renzo Desbordes, investment director at FCIM said. “This collaboration not only enhances portfolio construction and diversification but also sets a new standard for innovation and value in the model portfolio service space.”

Neuberger Berman
, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager, has made the final close of NB Strategic Capital Fund II (the fund) at just over $4.0 billion of total capital commitments, with additional capital committed by limited partners to co-invest alongside the fund. The amount, which surpassed the initial target of $2.5 billion, represents a fourfold increase from the predecessor fund, NB Strategic Capital Fund I, which held a final close in 2020 at just over $955 million.

The fund’s diverse investor base, which spans North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, features corporate and public pension plans, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, family offices, and high net worth individuals.

“We are grateful to both existing and new investors for the confidence they have placed in our team and the support they have shown us,” Tristram Perkins, global co-head of secondaries at Neuberger Berman, said. “We are excited by the market opportunity in GP-led secondaries, which continues to grow rapidly, and we believe will continue to be an important source of liquidity for private markets and attractive investment opportunities for our investors.”

Neuberger Berman, a scaled investor in GP-led secondaries, has led or co-led more than 40 single and multi-asset continuation fund transactions, representing more than $15 billion of cumulative transaction value. NB Strategic Capital Fund II is now positioned as one of the largest funds dedicated to the GP-led secondary market, which in 2024 alone expanded 44 per cent, reaching a record $75 billion of transaction value. This fund is highly complementary to Neuberger Berman’s broader GP-centric strategy, which partners with sponsors across their capital structure and throughout the private equity ecosystem.

In private markets, Neuberger Berman has over $135 billion of assets under management across primaries, co-investments, secondaries, direct lending, capital solutions, and other strategies. This includes over $20 billion in assets under management across its flagship private equity secondaries funds and other secondary vehicles.

HSBC Asset Management
has entered the active ETF market with the launch of five new funds.

The HSBC PLUS Active ETF range will provide investors with country and regional exposures through ‘core’ and "income" versions, aiming to blend the benefits of the ETF wrapper with the potential to outperform. The funds use a quantitative driven investment approach with proprietary factors forming the basis of a stock selection process which leverages?HSBC AM’s quantitative equity capabilities.

The funds that comprise the HSBC PLUS Active ETF range are:

· HSBC PLUS USA Equity Quant Active UCITS ETF

· HSBC PLUS World Equity Quant Active UCITS ETF

· HSBC PLUS Emerging Markets Equity Quant Active UCITS ETF

· HSBC PLUS World Equity Income Quant Active UCITS ETF

· HSBC PLUS Emerging Markets Equity Income Quant Active UCITS ETF

The overall investment approach aims to target specific drivers of equity returns and select stocks based on their ‘style’ characteristics, including stocks which show the greatest association with value, quality, industry momentum, low risk and size. The stock selection process relies on HSBC AM’s "well-defined" criteria which have been developed by the business for 20 years.

The core range, which includes the HSBC PLUS USA Equity Quant Active UCITS ETF, HSBC PLUS World Equity Quant Active UCITS ETF and HSBC PLUS Emerging Markets Equity Quant Active UCITS ETF funds, aims to maximise exposure to the highest-ranked stocks based on their factor characteristics whilst minimising the portfolio’s overall risk.

The income range comprises the HSBC PLUS World Equity Income Quant Active UCITS ETF and HSBC PLUS Emerging Markets Equity Income Quant Active UCITS ETF funds which aim to identify equity securities with attractive income and quality characteristics; they provide additional income compared with a market-cap index, while preserving the capital growth.

The funds will be registered and available to retail, wholesale and institutional investors in Austria, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden and the UK. They will also be listed on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and Xetra.

“The active ETF market is enjoying strong growth, and we are pleased to introduce our suite of funds in this space as part of our efforts to bring innovative and relevant investment tools to investors,” Olga de Tapia, global head of ETF and indexing sales at HSBC AM, said. “Our HSBC PLUS Active ETF range combines quantitative active management with the efficiency of an ETF structure and aims to provide investors with additional alpha beyond core passive exposures in a cost-efficient way and ensuring resilience across diverse market cycles and economic regimes...we believe factor strategies can be used to complement existing investments and help with diversification by sitting in a space between traditional active and passive investments.”