The team running First State Investments' Diversified Growth fund has positioned the portfolio "very defensively", including reducing equity exposure from 55% last year to less than 20%.
The £20m fund, managed by a nine-strong team, is the firm's only multi-asset vehicle for UK retail investors and was launched into this market two years ago, having previously been an institutional product. It aims to achieve a return of RPI plus 4% over a rolling 5-year period. Commenting on recent moves on the fund, multi-asset manager Andrew Harman said equity exposure had been significantly cut back to 18% as a way of protecting the portfolio, although he is not buying extra protection at this time. He said: "We can buy protection via option strategies or we can buy the VIX but we...
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