Aviva Investors has launched a long-term asset fund (LTAF) seeded with £1.5bn (€1.7bn) property portfolio from its insurer parent’s UK life annuity business.
The asset manager said the Aviva Investors Real Estate Active LTAF (REALTAF) is its first fund under the LTAF regime, a new category of fund designed to provide access to long-term private market assets.
Aviva Investors said REALTAF will enable a broad range of institutional and professional investors – including defined contribution pension funds, master trusts and local government pension funds – to access real assets investments more easily, while better matching the liquidity of the underlying assets with that of the fund.
Daniel McHugh, CIO for real assets at Aviva Investors, said REALTAF represents the largest LTAF on offer today for wealth and institutional investors, and one we want to make the go-to fund of choice for investment in real assets.
McHugh added: “We are also pleased to have the backing of Aviva UK Life in creating a fund which we believe represents the future of real assets investing.
“Not only does this demonstrate our ability to innovate and provide new products to meet the evolving demands of the market, it also shows the confidence we have to consistently originate assets, at scale, whilst matching investors’ underlying liquidity requirements.”
The LTAF is a new category of open-ended authorised fund designed to invest efficiently in long-term assets. LTAFs are intended by the Financial Conduct Authority to enable a broader range of investors, with longer-term horizons, to invest efficiently in illiquid and private assets.
In March, Schroders Capital announced it had received regulatory approval to launch the UK’s first LTAF.
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