Investment manager Schroders has launched a private equity fund on its GAIA II liquid alternatives platform.

The new Schroder private equity fund is titled “Schroder GAIA II Specialist Private Equity fund.”

It will target unlisted companies of enterprise value up to $250 million.

Further, the fund will consider European and U.S. companies, as well as a few out of Asia, China, and India for investment.

The new fund will offer monthly subscriptions and quarterly redemptions with a minimum investment of $50,000.

Liquid alternative strategies

Investors are finding liquid alternative strategies increasingly attractive. Low bond yields, stretched equity valuations, and heightened volatility have all become important portfolio concerns.

However, liquid alternative strategies offer investors genuine diversification within a portfolio, reduced volatility, and decorrelation characteristics.

At the same time, they offer potential downside protection when markets are distressed.

The new PE- GAIA fund is one such opportunity. It offers liquidity as well as exposure to private equity, an alternative investment, at a low minimum of $50,000.

Schroders said the fund would provide “greater investment flexibility for a potentially larger pool of prospective clients.”

It would do this by removing the roadblocks that traditionally put this asset class out of reach of more everyday investors.

Schroders’ GAIA platform – home to liquid alternatives

The GAIA platform is a regulated, liquid, and transparent way for investors to access hedge fund strategies within a UCITS framework. however, for fund strategies inappropriate for UCITS, Schroders set up its Schroder GAIA II, a non-UCITS platform.

Fund management by Schroder Adveq

Founded in 1997, Schroder Adveq Management AG is an asset manager investing in private equity globally. Its investment solutions allow Schroder Adveq’s clients to access private equity investments globally through primary, secondary and co-investments.

Further, Schroder Adveq has investment programs focused on the US since 1997, Europe since 1998, and Asia since 2006.

The democratization of private equity investing

Rainer Ender, head of private equity, Schroder Adveq, commented: “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.”

Earlier this week, Schroders announced its partnership with US fund manager Nuveen to offer US equity hedge fund strategies on the GAIA platform.