Investments  

Invesco’s Gars challenger gets support from ratings group

Invesco Perpetual’s rival to the giant Standard Life Investments Global Absolute Return Strategies (Gars) fund has been rated by The Adviser Centre.

The group’s Global Targeted Returns fund launched in September last year with three managers Invesco hired from SLI.

Now the fund, which is £576m in size, has been put on The Adviser Centre’s Recommended list having previously been on the Positive Watch list.

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The ratings company, headed by former OBSR executives Peter Toogood and Gill Hutchison, said it now had “sufficient confidence in the proposition” to move it to the Recommended list.

“This move is based upon a number of factors, including the managers’ previous experience in running this type of strategy and evidence of successful interaction with Invesco Perpetual’s internal fund management teams,” The Adviwer Centre said.

“The period since the launch of the fund has incorporated challenging market conditions, with a backdrop of continued unconventional monetary policies and their impact on asset prices.

“In observing the fund’s behaviour in this period, we note that it has navigated changes in volatility, investor sentiment and technical positioning well, by dint of its diversification and the team’s focus on risk and efficient implementation.”

Since launch, the fund has delivered 11.3 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics.

The fund sits in the IMA Targeted Absolute Return sector and seeks to achieve a positive total return over rolling three year periods, with a gross performance objective of 5 per cent above UK 3-month Libor.

The managers seek to do this with half the volatility of global equity markets.

Tilney Bestinvest last week gave the fund a five star rating.