Lowes to launch fund of structured investment strategies

Structured investment expert Lowes Financial Management is to launch a new UCITS fund utilising its skills, expertise and track record in structured investments.
The group, established in 1971, is to launch the Lowes UK Defined Strategy Fund, which invests in a variety of strategies most commonly seen within structured investments.
Aiming to deliver in excess of a cash plus 5% return per annum over the medium to long term, the Fund is designed to offer advisers something completely new in terms of providing clients with exposure to structured investments.
Rather than buying individual structured products, the fund acts like a typical UCITS fund for advisers and their clients, offering daily pricing, a highly diversified asset base, wide wrapper availability, and platform execution.
The Fund works by creating, buying and selling strategies commonly found within the structured investment market, diversifying across different types of product but with a particular focus on autocall – or kickout – strategies which are most favoured by financial advisers and their clients and the mainstay of the sector.
Autocall strategies run for a set period of years but offer the opportunity to deliver a pre-determined return at certain points – such as an index reaching a certain level at a future date – which then result in products delivering its return and maturing for subsequent reinvestment.
The Fund will continuously repeat this process via the underlying investments, ensuring it has exposure to many such strategies at any given point, thus creating a diversity of return profiles and counterparties, although the latter will be heavily biased towards UK Government issued Gilts.
As the investment manager, Lowes will not only select the investments, but also actively manage the portfolio, with the option to sell investments ahead of any potential return date if in the interests of shareholders.
Ian Lowes, managing director at Lowes Financial Management which manages almost £1bn on behalf of clients, said: “With this innovative new approach it will now be possible for advisers to provide their clients with access to the returns available from a pool of structured investments, whilst also having the flexibility to withdraw money at any stage.”
“Based on tried and tested strategies, and diversifying investments across a broad spectrum of issuers, we think this has the power to transform the way advisers think about – and invest clients in – structured products.”
The fund, which goes live on 11 December, has a 3-week offer period when it is priced at £1 per share.