The Fund’s managers will employ an active, unconstrained strategy that blends macro and fundamental stock analysis to build a global equity portfolio, Neuberger Berman said in a statement.
The investment team of the new UCITS Fund will be led by Daniel Geber, a 20-year investment management veteran and includes analysts Thuy Tran and Alan Freeman, with 15 years and 13 years of industry experience, respectively.
The new product is a sub-fund of the Irish-domiciled UCITS fund umbrella, Neuberger Berman Investment Funds. It follows the launch of a long short multi-manager fund in November last year which allocates its assets to a select group of external hedge fund advisers that employ distinct long short strategies, largely in global equities.
According to Neuberger Berman, the liquid alternatives UCITS market is on track to continue its rapid expansion driven by a search for yield by investors facing sky high equity prices and low bond yields.
“Investors are concerned by a run-up in equity valuations in a world still beset by economic difficulties, but cannot see a way to achieve sufficient returns from fixed income portfolios with low absolute yields and threatened by the spectre of interest rate risk in the US and UK,” said Fred Ingham, head of international hedge fund investments at Neuberger Berman.
“Historically alternatives have been associated with opaque, unregulated offshore vehicles that could be difficult to access. The last few years have seen the democratisation of alternative investments by the on-shoring of products”
“This has meant the movement of alternative investment vehicles into the UCITS sector which now includes almost 850 funds,” he said.
According to date from Strategic Insight, within the UCITS universe, the liquid alternatives asset class has expanded from around $70bn (£47.7bn) under management at the end of 2008 to approximately $200bn today.
“With a 20-year-plus history of managing alternatives portfolios, currently worth more than $28bn, Neuberger Berman is well-placed to respond to this growing client demand,” Dik van Lomwel, head of EMEA and Latin America said.
