Skandia Investment Group has awarded Aviva Investors a GBP8m mandate to help further boost its Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas Fund, the only long/short Ucits III multi-manager fund in the IMA’s UK All Companies sector.

Launched just over three years ago, the fund has outperformed the FTSE All Share Index by over ten per cent since its launch in September 2007, placing the fund in the top quartile of the IMA UK All Companies sector.
 
The fund is currently managed by seven UK based long/short equity managers: Paul Casson of Henderson, Richard Plackett of BlackRock, Tim Steer of Artemis, Phil Hardy of Polar Capital, Mark Lyttleton of BlackRock, Colin McLean of SVM and Ben Wallace, Gartmore. They have now been joined by Julius Lipner of Aviva Investors. 
 
Senior fund manager Ryan Hughes says there was a growing recognition by investors of the contribution long/short strategies can make to investor returns in a lower growth world and SIG sought to find the best managers available to deliver those strategies.

“Julius is an experienced and dedicated long/short manager with a background in both hedge fund and absolute return environments. He takes a disciplined, consistent approach to investing with the aim of delivering consistent and stable returns. Julius is able to draw on the strength and experience of Aviva Investors’ investment teams and its processes, especially in risk management which is an integral element to portfolio construction and monitoring, and its expertise in dealing and execution.”
 
Lipner adds: “The macro-economic outlook is still unclear. Investors' current general lack of appetite for equities means that there are many opportunities to exploit at a micro level and relative valuations are getting increasingly interesting. All this bodes well for fundamental long/short strategies.
 
“It’s a privilege to be recognised by Skandia Investment Group, which continues to offer the only long/short equity multi-manager fund in the market, and to bring Aviva Investors’ expertise to a wider group of investors.”