Newton is to launch an adviser share class for its £647m Global Balanced fund, saying intermediaries are showing increasing interest in a mixed-asset fund targeting higher returns.
The firm already offers Iain Stewart and Matthew Brown’s £2.6bn Multi-Asset Balanced fund – which sits in the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector – to advisers and wealth managers. However, the strategy, which has around 30 per cent in bonds and cash, was found to be too cautious for some Newton clients, prompting a review of other offerings.
Newton recently merged its two institutional funds – Global Balanced and Newton Exempt – a move that gave the product greater scale and helped facilitate the decision to open it to an expanded audience.
The firm has form on offering multi-asset products to a wider client base, having opened up its £32m Osprey fund, run by Robert Shelton, to discretionary clients in late 2015. The portfolio was previously only open to Newton employees and their families.
The Global Balanced fund, run by Simon Nichols, is top quartile over three years in the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector with a return of 33.5 per cent, having been aided by its exposure to US and European equities. The returns contrast with the 27 per cent produced by both the Multi-Asset Balanced fund and the sector.
Newton said the fund’s intermediary share class would have an ongoing charges figure of 0.63 per cent.
