Investors

Morley opens fund of funds to third party investors(2)

The UK fund manager owned by insurance group Aviva is to put its experience of private equity fund investing at the disposal of its clients in a rolling programme of annual partnerships.

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Morley, one of the UK's largest fund managers, is launching a private equity fund of funds, the Morley Private Equity Programme.

The first fund – The 2008 Partnership – will be marketed to institutions and other investors seeking exposure to private equity, but not having sufficient assets to justify investing through a traditional segregated account.

The team behind the programme currently manages £1.2 billion (€1,7 billion, $2.4 billion) of private equity investments for Aviva group companies. It claims a combined experience of more than 50 years of private equity fund of funds investing, delivering returns of 32 percent per annum over 16 years.

James Tanner, managing director, distribution and alternatives, said: “This is another example of Morley packaging its strong investment skills into new products for external clients. The pooled structure will open up access to our investment capability for small and medium-sized pension schemes with assets of over £150 million, and will complement Morley's existing segregated investment programme.”

The programme will be a series of annual funds structured as limited partnerships. Each sub fund will aim to achieve an absolute return via investment in unlisted securities via primary funds and co-investments. Investments will focus on Europe and the buy-out sector.