We also expect attention to shift towards the fixed-income space in that country.
Our Global Leaders Equity product, a brand-focused portfolio that is also available in fund form, is selling well in South Africa, where there is an appetite for offshore investments.
How much exposure in terms of assets do alternative investments represent within Ashburton’s range of funds?
There are some clear long-term investment trends, such as the move to more defined investment outcomes, an increased absolute-return focus and financial innovation that support alternative investing becoming more mainstream and accessible.
Across our wider business, we are actively seeking to diversify away from long-only products to offer investors a wider and more productive asset choice, not necessarily in the traditional hedge fund space but access to assets that are not readily available to investors.
These range from private equity, real estate and unlisted credit within our Africa-focused products.
More than 30% of our assets under management is comprised of what we would term non-traditional asset classes.
We view alternative credit as particularly interesting for global investors in a world within which the ‘new normal’ has been zero interest rates in developed markets, and investors are continually searching for yield.
How is your product and marketing strategy shaping up in 2015?
We have spent the past two years reshaping our product range and building our distribution reach from what was previously a South Africa and Jersey focus to now include the UK, Europe, Middle East and the US.
While product development remains a key enabler for our longer-term ambitions, our strategy for 2015 is focused on increasing distribution.
Internationally, within our new target markets, our emerging corridor product, namely our Africa Equity Opportunities Fund and our Africa Credit Co-Investment Fund and our two India offerings, Equity Opportunities and Fixed Income Opportunities Funds, will take centre stage.
We also intend to introduce our newly launched Global Energy Fund, which has performed relatively well despite a tumultuous time in oil markets these past few months.
In our core existing markets in Africa and Jersey, we are looking to extend penetration of our global multi asset and equity products. Bringing us back to our roots, all of the latter offerings are also available through our discretionary portfolio service, which will be another strong growth point for us this year.
