Absolute return investing

In a volatile investment landscape, investors face an increasing challenge to achieve investment returns at an acceptable level of risk. As a result, taking an absolute return approach has increased in popularity as it seeks to provide positive returns whether markets are rising or falling. At Standard Life Investments, we have extensive experience investing for absolute returns and offer two funds that aim to help investors meet their long-term requirements.

In 2005, we successfully implemented an absolute return approach to provide a lower-volatility framework in which our parent group, Standard Life, could better aim to meet its pension objectives. We subsequently launched the Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund (GARS) for institutional investors in June 2006. GARS aims to deliver a target return of cash* +5% per annum (gross of fees) over rolling 3-year periods. To achieve this, we seek returns through a portfolio of 20-35 carefully selected market strategies chosen across asset classes and on a global basis.

For investors seeking absolute returns through an investment in fixed income, we launched the Absolute Return Global Bond Strategies Fund in March 2011. It aims to deliver a target return of cash** +2.5% per annum, gross of fees, over rolling 3-year periods. This is achieved through a variety of fixed income investment opportunities including corporate and government bonds, as well as interest rates, inflation, volatility and currencies.