New global fund for accredited investors

Standard Life Investments Global Absolute Returns Strategies Private Pooled Fund (GARS) is now available to Canadian accredited investors, Montreal-based Standard Life Investments Inc. and Standard Life Mutual Funds Ltd. announced on Wednesday.

Through a multi-asset team, the fund employs advanced investment strategies, including derivatives to manage risk, to reach its goal of providing consistent, positive absolute returns to investors. As part of its strategy to reach that goal, the fund invests in a number of different asset classes, such as bonds, real estate and currencies.

Started in 2006, GARS was originally offered in the United Kingdom as a solution for Standard Life Group's staff pension plan. Since that time, institutional investors in Europe Asia, Australia, the United States and Canada have all invested in the fund.

Standard Life Investments manages approximately $33.4 billion of assets. Standard Life Mutual Funds provides 51 mutual funds and fund-of-funds offerings to approximately 64,000 Canadian investors.