Aviva Investors, the asset management business of Aviva plc, has announced the launch of a new real estate asset fund, its first under its long-term asset fund (LTAF) regime.

The group’s new category of fund has been designed to provide access to long-term private market assets and is the largest such fund launched in the market to-date.

The fund, which consists of an initial £1.5bn portfolio of direct real estate assets seeded by Aviva UK Life, 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.

Featuring a long-term absolute return target, Aviva Investors revealed the fund will adopt a strategy that complements its “active equity” approach to real estate equity, which is characterised by a preference to invest in high-conviction locations and emerging themes it strongly believes are well-placed to deliver long-term value.

The fund will be managed by senior fund manager at Aviva Investors, Tim Russell.

Chief investment officer, real assets at Aviva Investors, Daniel McHugh, commented: “[The fund] 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.

“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.”

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