Intech Investment Consulting has launched another fund with a concentrated portfolio – this time for global listed property.
The fund, called ‘international property securities (hedged) trust’, aims to maximise returns over the long term through exposure to global and regional property managers “who reside outside the mainstream”. Ron Liling, Intech’s head of equities and property, said: “Our research has shown that international property is an emerging asset class that is currently not very well researched which offers skilful managers the opportunity to add material value. We believe that a high conviction approach will handsomely reward our clients over the next few years.” As with its High Opportunities Trust (HOT) for international shares and High Alpha Trust (HAT) for Australian shares, Intech has given the managers of the new property fund the freedom to take positions that may deviate significantly from the benchmark. The initial three managers for the fund are: Perennial (global), Heitman (US) and Houlihan Rovers (Europe). Of the role of global property within diversified portfolios, Liling said: “To date, multi-manager providers have been slow to embrace this asset class within their diversified funds, and exposure to global property has typically been less than 3 per cent.” Apart from its strong alpha potential, Intech says that global property brings strong diversification benefits for diversified funds. Liling said: “We have allocated between 4 per cent and 10 per cent to global property in our respective diversified trusts because we want this asset class to make a difference to both risk and return.”
Institutional investors have broadly welcomed the advent of a mandatory climate disclosure regime, but the reality is they face a slew of new and complex governance, risk management, planning and testing requirements. It is little wonder HESTA CEO Debby Blakey has called the net-zero push the "biggest transition any of us will be involved in".
Russell BakerAugust 16, 2023
