MFS Investment Management (MFS) has launched the MFS Meridian Funds – Global Flexible Multi-Asset fund, a flexible investment strategy that aims to capture alpha through strategic asset allocation, tactical flexibility and bottom-up security selection over the full global economic cycle.
The portfolio management team establishes capital asset allocation risk targets for equity, debt instruments, commodities and cash and cash equivalents, according to a media release.
They set these targets based on a view of the economic cycle and the key drivers of earnings, credit, duration and currency risk as part of a long-term valuation framework. This approach aims to optimise returns by capitalising on market opportunities while reducing exposure to downside risk.
Typically, the capital allocation to equities is expected to range between 45% and 65%, with between 20% and 40% allocated to fixed income, 4% to 16% to commodities and 2% and 10% to cash equivalents. The strategy has the flexibility to go outside these ranges in periods of material valuation dislocations, volatility or anticipated shifts in fundamentals.
The Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV S.A uses MFS’s global research platform, which includes fundamental equity, credit and quantitative analysis aimed at developing unique and proprietary insights into a company’s fundamentals and valuation metrics, as well as security selection enabling optimization between bottom-up and top-down positioning.
The strategy aims to deliver above-average returns over a full market cycle relative to its blended benchmark, the 60% MSCI All Country World Index and 40% Bloomberg Global Aggregate (USD Hedged) Blended Index.
It is co-managed by Pilar Gomez-Bravo, who joined MFS in 2013, is a fixed income portfolio manager and serves as the firm’s co-CIO – fixed income, as well as Kevin Dwan, who has been with the company for the past twenty years and is an equity portfolio Manager.
Commenting on the launch, Matt Weisser, MFS managing director – Europe said: ‘Multi-asset investing is a proven approach that aims to create attractive long-term, risk-adjusted outcomes for investors.”
“The flexibility of the new strategy allows us to respond dynamically to market changes, whether it’s leveraging growth in equities or managing volatility with fixed income. Our goal is to provide strong, competitive returns while preserving capital during periods of market downturn, making this fund a possible solution for investors seeking risk adjusted returns,” he added.
