Schroders has launched a specialist private equity fund, which provides greater investment flexibility for a potentially larger pool of prospective clients.
The Schroder GAIA II Specialist Private Equity Fund addresses a number of factors that have traditionally made accessing the asset class challenging – it offers monthly subscriptions and quarterly redemptions, while investors can also gain exposure with a minimum investment of USD50,000.
Schroder Adveq, Schroders’ specialist private equity team, will manage the fund.
The fund will focus on small and medium-sized buyouts in Europe and USA, encompassing companies that typically have an enterprise value of less than USD250 million. Companies of that size are typically not publicly listed and are therefore not in the majority of investors’ portfolios.
The fund will also allocate to companies in Asia positioned to benefit from domestic demand growth and the burgeoning middle class in China and India.
Liquidity management has been embedded into the fund design, through a combination of portfolio design and liquidity tools.
Rainer Ender, Head of Private Equity, Schroder Adveq, says: “Investing in private equity has traditionally been out of reach of the vast majority of investors apart from big institutions. But the launch of the Schroder GAIA II Specialist Private Equity Fund will give a greater pool of investors access to this increasingly relevant asset class.”
GAIA II is Schroders’ liquid alternatives platform and sits alongside the GAIA platform which provides investors with access to a diverse hedge fund offering.
Schroder Adveq, acquired in 2017, manages private equity investments across a range of investment strategies.
Schroders Private Assets and Alternatives business, a strategic growth area for the firm, manages GBP39.3 billion in assets, including private equity, hedge funds, infrastructure finance, insurance-linked securities, commodities, real estate and securitised credit.
