The latest funds and investments across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Aberdeen Standard Investments
Aberdeen Standard Investments has launched a new fund that uses machine learning to identify drivers of potential returns.

The Aberdeen Global (AG) Artificial Intelligence Global Equity SICAV, launched in Luxembourg, is a product collaboration between Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) team and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Investment Technology Institute (MTEC)/Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation in Tokyo, Japan – a centre of excellence in robotics, artificial intelligence and financial technology.

The fund embeds machine learning techniques within the investment process and will use a variety of quantitative techniques to time its investments. These investments will be based on factors of risk such as value, quality, momentum, small size and low volatility.

Legg Mason
Legg Mason, the asset management firm, has expanded its range of unconstrained fixed income funds with the launch of the Legg Mason Brandywine Global Enhanced Absolute Return Fund.

Domiciled in Dublin, the actively managed, unconstrained fixed income fund is based on a global unconstrained enhanced bond strategy managed by Brandywine Global since 2012. It seeks positive absolute returns independent of market conditions and aims to outperform the FTSE 3-Month T-Bill Index.

Managers David Hoffman, Steve Smith, Jack McIntyre and Anujeet Sareen will hold a concentrated portfolio of Brandywine Global’s ideas in global fixed income markets, with a primary focus on sovereign debt markets and currencies.

The fund may take long or short exposures in both investment grade and non-investment grade segments, depending on which markets the team views as overvalued or undervalued. Overall portfolio duration can run within a range between -10 and +10 years, providing the potential to generate positive returns in a rising rate environment.