Aviva Investors launches Global Equity Income SICAV

12 February 2024

(London) – Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc, has today announced that it has launched a SICAV fund inspired by the existing Global Equity Income Strategy.

• The launch comes as a result of growing demand from investors seeking resilience and growing income across changeable market conditions.
•  The fund will be similar to existing portfolios in the Global Equity Income Strategy that has been managed by Richard Saldanha since November 2013. The separate strategy, managed since 2013, has delivered net performance of 11.20 per cent in the last 10 years¹. It has a top-decile performance in comparison to its peers over a 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year period².

The fund launch comes as a result of substantial investor demand for equity income solutions, which have provided relative drawdown protection against a backdrop of a high inflation, high interest rate environment. The SICAV will be domiciled in Luxembourg, and available to investors across Europe.

The new Global Equity Income fund utilises a high-conviction philosophy with the objective of delivering income and capital growth over the long-term by investing in companies that pay sustainable and growing dividends with a focus on finding opportunities outside of traditional income sectors, which can also help the fund keep pace with rising equity markets.

The existing Strategy has been managed by Richard Saldanha, portfolio manager, since November 2013. He is supported by co-portfolio manager Matt Kirby. The Strategy, like the new SICAV, is also benchmarked against the MSCI All Country World Index and has produced top decile returns amongst its peer group on a 3-year, 5-year and 10-year time period.

The key difference from the existing strategy is that the new SICAV fund, intends to adopt a dynamic mean reversion process of writing listed covered call options and put options on 20% of the Fund AUM. The premiums received on the options aim to provide income uplift. The mean reversion programme would be managed by the Aviva Investors Implementation team. The portfolio managers will not be managing the portfolio any differently to other portfolios they already manage within the existing Global Equity Income Strategy.

Jill Barber, Global Head of Sales & Distribution, Aviva Investors, said:

“We are delighted to announce the launch of the Global Equity Income SICAV. In the current economic environment, there has been a growing demand in both the UK and Europe for income-generating investment solutions. As such, we are pleased to now be able to offer this product to a wider audience and help investors to achieve their goals.”

Richard Saldanha, Portfolio Manager, Aviva Investors, added:

“We are looking forward to building on the strong track record we have delivered for clients over the past decade with the launch of the SICAV. It is firmly our belief that the current opportunity set for investors seeking companies offering resilient and growing income is compelling. By focusing outside of traditional income sectors, we seek to maximise this opportunity both from an income and capital growth standpoint.”

Source: Aviva